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BUFFALO LAjSTD: 



Authentic jSTarratiye 



Adventures and Misadventures of a Late Scientific andy 
Sporting Party 



UPON THE 



GREAT PLALXS OP THE WEST. 

WITH 

FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COUNTRY TRAVERSED, THE INDIAN A3 

HE IS, THE HADITS OF THE BUFFALO, WOLF, AND 

WILD HORSE, ETC., ETC. 

ALSO AN APPENDIX, CONSTITUTING THE WOBE 

^ Plannal for Sportsmen anb ^anb-book for Emigrants taking ^omis. 



OF XOPEKA, KANSAS. 



FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY HENRY WORRALL, AND ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS. 



CIXCINNATE AND CHICAGO : 

E. HANNAFORD & COMPANY. 

1872. 



'f'5'^^ 

^^'\ 



Eutered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

E. HANNAFORD & CO., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 

STERF.OTYPEO AT THE FBANKLIN TYPE FOUNDUY CINCINNATI. 



TO 

' toe |)dmj3pal Wnrr, 

CCTic Original Westerner, and First Buffalo JIunteTf 

C^is 2:iLlorIv ts Drtitratf^, 

With Profovnd Keoard, 

S2' 7' hi: authoir. 



BUFFALO LAND, 



BY OUR TAxMMANT SACHEM. 



THERE'S a wonderful land fur out in the West, 
Well worthy a visit, my friend ; . 
There, Puritans thought, as the sun went to rest, 

Creation itself had an end. 
'Tis a wild, weird spot on the continent's face, 

A wound which is ghastly and red. 
Where the savages write the deeds of their race 

In blood that they constantly shed. 
The graves of the dead the fair prairies deface, 

And stamp it the kingdom of dread. 

The emigrant trail is a skeleton patli ; 

You measure its miles by the bones; 
There savages struck, in their merciless wrath, 

And now, after sunset, the moans, 
When tempests are out, fill the shuddering air. 

And ghosts flit the wagons beside, 
And point to the skulls lying grinning and bare. 

And beg of the teamsters a ride; 
Sometimes 'tis a fother with snow on his hair. 

Again, 'tis a youth and his bride. 

A^liat visions of horror each valley could tell, 

If Providence gave it a tongue ! 
How often its Eden was changed to a hell, 

In which a whole train had been flung; 

(vii) 



VIU BUFFALO LAND. 

How death cry and battle-shout frightened the birds, 
And prayers were as thick as the leaves, 

And no one to catch the poor dying one's words 
But Death, as he gathered his sheaves : 

You see the bones bleaching among the wild herds, 
In shrouds that the field spider weaves. 

That era is passing — another one comes. 

The era of steam and the plow, 
With clangor of commerce and factory hums. 

Where only the Avigwam is now. 
Like mist of the morning before the bright sun, 

The cloud from the land disappears ; 
The Spirit of Murder his circle has run 

And fled from the march of the years ; 
The click of machine drowns the click of the gun, 

And day hides the night time of tears. 



PKEFACE. 



The purpose of this work is to make the reader 
better acquainted with that wild land which he has 
known from childhood, as the home of the Indian 
and the buifalo. The Rocky Mountain chain, dis- 
torted and rugged, has been aptly called the colossal 
vertebrae of our continent's broad back, and from 
thence, as a line, the plains, weird and wonderful, 
stretch eastward through Colorado, and embrace 
the entire western half of Kansas. 

Fortune, not long since, threw in my way an in- 
vitation, which I gladly accepted, to join a semi- 
scientific party, since somewhat known to fame 
through various articles in the newspaper press, in 
a sojourn of several months on the great plains. 
At a meeting held with due solemnity on the eve 
of starting, the Professor (to whom the reader will 
be introduced in the proper connection) was chosen 
leader of the expedition, while to my lot fell the 



X PREFACE. 

office of editor of the future record, or rather Grand 
Scribe of what we were pleased to call our "Log 
Book." The latter now lies before me, in all its 
glory of shabby covers and dirty pages. Its soiled 
fiice is as honorable as that of the laborer who 
comes from his task in a well harvested field. Out 
of the sheaves gathered during our journey, I shall 
try and take such portions as may best supply the 
mental cravings of the countless thousands who 
hunger for the life and the lore of the far West. 

I have given the mistakes as well as triumphs of 
our expedition, and the members of the party will 
readily recognize their familiar camp names. The 
disguise will probably be pleasant, as few like to see 
their failures on public parade, preferring rather to 
leave these in barracks, and let their successes only 
appear at review. 

The plains have a face, a people, and a brute 
creation, peculiarly their ow-n, and to these our 
party devoted earnest study. The expedition pre- 
sented a rare opportunity of becoming acquainted 
wdth the game of the country ; and, in writing the 
present volume, my aim has been to make it so far 
a text-book for amateur hunters that they may 
become at once conversant with the habits of the 
game, and the best manner of killing it. The time 
is not far distant, when the plains and the Rocky 



PREFACE. XI 

Mountains will be sought by thousands annually, as 
a favorite field for sport and recreation. 

Another and still larger class, it is hoped, will 
find much of interest and value in the following 
pages. From every state in the Union, people are 
constantly passing westward. We found emigrant 
wagons on spots from which the Indians had just 
removed their wigwams. Multitudes more are now 
on the way, with the earnest purpose of founding 
homes and, if possible, of finding fortunes. In 
order to aid this class, as well as the sportsman, I 
have gathered in an appendix such additional infor- 
mation as may be useful to both. 

The scientific details of our trip will probably be 
published in proper form and time, by the savans 
interested. In regard to these, my object has been 
simply to chronicle such matters as made an im- 
pression upon my own mind, being content with 
what cream might be gathered by an amateur's 
skimming, while the more bulky milk should be 
saved in capacious scientific buckets. 

Professor Cope, the well known naturalist, of the 
Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, received for ex- 
amination and classification the most valuable 
fossils we obtained, and to him I am indebted for 
a large amount of most interesting and valuable 



Xll PREFACE. 

scientific matter, which will be found embodied in 
chapters twenty-third and twenty-fourth. 

The illustrations of men and brutes in this work 
are studies from life. Whenever it was possible, 
we had photographs taken. 

The plains, it must be said, are a tract with 
which Romance has had much more to do than 
History. Red men, brave and chivalrous, and un- 
natural buffalo, with the habits of lions, exist only 
in imagination. In these pages, my earnest en- 
deavor, when dealing with actualities, has been to 
"hold the mirror up to Nature," and to describe 
men, manners, and things as they are in real life 
upon the frontiers, and beyond, to-day. 

W. E. W. 

ToPEKA, Kansas, May, 1872. 



C ONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAOEB. 
THE OBJECT OF OUR EXPEDITION A GLIMPSE OF ALASKA THROUGH CAP- 
TAIN walrus' glass WE ARE TEMPTED I!Y OCR RECENT PURCHASE — 

ALASKAN GAME OP " OLD SLEDGE " THE EARLY STRUGGLES OF KAN- 
SAS THE SMOKY HILL TRAIL — INDIAN HIGH ART — THE "BORDER- 
RUFFIAN," PAST AND PRESENT TOPEKA HOW IT RECEIVED ITS 

NAME WAUKARUSA AND ITS LEGEND, 2&-35 

CHAPTER II. 

A CHAPTER OF INTRODUCTIONS — PROFESSOR PALEOZOIC TAMMANY SACHEM 

DOCTOR PYTHAGORAS GENUINE MUGG3 — COLON AND SEMI-COLON 

BHAMUS DOBEEN TENACIOUS GRIPE BUGS AND PHILOSOPHY HOW 

GRIPE BECAME A REPUBLICAN, ....... 36-54 



CHAPTER III. 

THE TOPEKA AUCTIONEER — MUGGS GETS A BARGAIN — CYNOCEPHALUS — 
INDIAN SUMMER IN KANSAS — HUNTING PRAIRIE CHICKENS OUR FIRST 

day's SPORT, 55-G3 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHICKEN-SHOOTING CONTINUED — A SCIENTIFIC PARTY TAKE THE BIRDS ON 

THE WING EVILS OF FAST FIRING AN OLD-FASHIONED "SLOW SHOT" 

— THE HABITS OF THE PRAIRIE CHICKEN — ITS PROSPECTIVE EXTINC- 
TION MODE OF HUNTING IT — THE GOPHER SCALP LAW, . . . G4- 

(Xiii) 



Xiv CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 



PAGES. 



A TRIAL BY JUDGE LYNCH HUNG FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT QUAIL 

SHOOTING — HABITS OF THE BIRDS, AND MODE OP KILLING THEM A 

RING OF QUAILS THE EFFECTS OF A SEVERE WINTER — THE SNOW 

GOOSE, ......•••••• 75-83 



CHAPTER VI. 

OFF FOR BUFFALO LAND — THE NAVIGATION OF THE KAW FORT RILEY 

THE CENTER-POST OF THE UNITED STATES OUR PURCHASE OF HORSES 

"LO" AS A SAVAGE AND AS A CITIZEN — GRIPE UNFOLDS THE IN- 
DIAN QUESTION A BALLAD BY SACHEM, PRESENTING ANOTHER VIEW, 84-98 



CHAPTER VII. 

gripe's views OF INDIAN CHARACTER THE DELAWARES, THE ISHMAELITES 

OF THE PLAINS THE TERRITORY OF THE "LONG HORNS " TEXAN3 

AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS — MUSHROOM ROCK A VALUABLE DIS- 
COVERY FOOTPRINTS IN THE ROCK — THE PRIMEVAL PAUL AND 

VIRGINIA, 99-111 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE "GREAT AMERICAN DESERT" ITS FOSSIL WEALTH AN ILLUSION DIS- 
PELLED — FIRES ACCORDING TO NOVELS AND ACCORDING TO FACT 

SENSATIONAL HEROES AND HEROINES PRAIRIE DOGS AND THEIR HAB- 
ITS HAWK AND DOG, AND HAWK AND CAT, 112-123 

CHAPTER IX. 

WE SEE BUFFALO ARRIVAL AT HAYS GENERAL SHERIDAN AT THE FORT 

INDIAN MURDERS — BLOOD-CHRISTENING OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD 

SURPRISED BY A BUFFALO HERD A BUFFALO BULL IN A QUANDARY 

GENTLE ZEPHYRS — HOW A CIRCUS WENT OFF BOLOGNA TO LEAN ON 

A CALL UPON SHERIDAN, 124-141 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER X. 

PAues. 

HAVS CITY BY I.AMP-LIGHT THE SANTA FE TRADK RCLL-WHACKKRS — 

MEXICANS — SABBATH ON THE PLAINS — THE DARK AGES— WILD BILL 

AND BUFFALO BILL — OFF FOR THE SALINE DOBEEN'S GUOST-STOUY 

AN ADVENTURE WITH INDIANS — MEXICAN CANNONADE — A RUNAWAY, 142-lCO 



CHAPTER XI. 

WHITE WOLF, THE CHEYENNE CHIEF — HUNGUT INDIANS — RETURN TO HAYS 
— A CHEYENNE WAR PARTY — THE PIPE OF PEACE — THE COUNCIL 
CHAMBER WHITE WOLF'S SPEECH, AS RENDERED BY SACHEM — THE 

WHITE man's wigwam, 161-1 76 



CHAPTER XII. 

ARMS OF A WAR PARTY — A DONKEY PRESENT EATING POWERS OF THE 

NOMADS — SATANTA, HIS CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT RUNNING OFF 

WITH A GOVERNMENT HERD — DAUB, OUR ARTIST ANTELOPE CHASE 

BY A GREYHOUND, 177-191 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHARACTER OF THE PLAINS BUFFALO BILL AND HIS HORSE BBIGHAM 

THE GUIDE AND SCOUT OF ROMANCE — CAYOTE VERSUS JACKASS-RAB- 
BIT A LAWYER-LIKE RESCUE — OUR CAMP ON SILVER CREEK UNCLE 

SAM's BUFFALO HERDS — TURKEY-SHOOTING OUR FIRST MEAL ON THE 

PLAINS — A GAME SUPPER, 102-208 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A CAMP-FIRE SCENE — VAGABONDIZING THE BLACK PACER OP THE PLAINS 

SOME ADVICE FROM BUFFALO BILL ABOUT INDIAN FIGHTING — LO's 

ABHORRENCE OF LONG RANGE — HIS DREAD OP CANNON — AN IRISH 

GOBLIN, 209-219 



^ 



Svi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. 

/ PAGES. 
A FIRfe SCENE A GLIMPSE OF THE SOUTH — 'cOON HUNTING IN MISSIS- 
SIPPI — VOICES IN THE SOLITUDE — FRIENDS OR FOES — A STARTLING 
SERENADE — PANIC IN CAMP CAYOTES AND THEIR HABITS WORRY- 
ING A BUFFALO BULL THE SECOND DAY — DAUB, OUR ARTIST — HE 

MAKES HIS MARK, 220-235 

CHAPTER XVI. 

BISON MEAT A STRANGE ARRIVAL THE SYDNEY FAMILY — THE HOME 

IN THE VALLEY THE SOLOMON MASSACRE — THE MURDER OF THE 

FATHER AND THE CHILD — THE SETTLERS* FLIGHT INCIDENTS OUR 

QUEEN OF THE PLAINS — THE PROFESSOR INTERESTED IRISH MARY 

DOBEEN HAPPY THE HEROINE OF ROMANCE SACHEm's BATH BY 

MOONLIGHT THE BEAVER COLONY, 236-249 

CHAPTER XVII. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE CHASE THE VALLEY OF THE SALINE — QUEER 

'COONS A bison's GAME OP BLUFF IN PURSUIT ALONGSIDE THE 

GAME FIRING FROM THE SADDLE A CHARGE AND A PANIC FALSE 

HISTORY AGAIN — GOING FOR AMMUNITION THE PROFESSOR'S LET- 
TER — DISROBING THE VICTIM, 250-263 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

STILL HUNTING DARK OBJECTS AGAINST THE HORIZON THE RED MAN 

AGAIN RETREAT TO CAMP — PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE SHAKING 

HANDS WITH DEATH — MR. COLON'S BUGS THE EMBASSADORS — A NEW 

ALARM — MORE INDIANS TERRIFIC BATTLE BETWEEN PAWNEES AND 

CHEYENNES THEIR MODE OF FIGHTING — GOOD HORSEMANSHIP A 

SCIENTIFIC PARTY AS SEXTONS — DITTO AS SURGEONS — CAMPS OF THE 
COMBATANTS STEALING AWAY AN APPARITION, .... 264-279 

CHAPTER XIX. 

STALKING THE BISON — BUFFALO AS OXEN— EXPENSIVE POWER A BUF- 
FALO AT A LUNATIC ASYLUM THE GATEWAY TO THE HERDS — INFER- 



CONTENTS. XVI 1 

PAQES. 
NAL GRAPE-SHOT — NATDKE'S BOMB-SHELLS — CRAWLING BEDOUINS — 

"THAR THEY HUMP" THE SLAUGHTER BEGUN — AN INEFFECTUAL 

CHARGE "KETCHING THE CRITTER " — RETURN TO CAMP CALVEs' 

HEAD ON THE STOMACH AN UNPLEASANT EPISODE WOLF BAITING, / 

AND HOW IT IS DONE, 280-291 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE CAYOTES' STRYCHNINE FEAST CAPTURING A TIMBER WOLF A FEW 

CORDS OF VICTIMS WHAT THE LAW CONSIDERS "INDIAN TAN " 

"finishing" THE NEW YORK MARKET A NEW YORK FARMER'S 

-""^ OPINION OF OUR GRAY WOLF — WESTWARD ASAIN EPISODES IN OUR 

JOURNEY — THE WILD HUNTRESS OF THE PLAINS — WAS OUR GUIDE A 

MURDERER? THE READER JOINS US IN A BUFFALO CHASE THE 

DYING AGONIES, 292-305 



CHAPTER XXI. 

J'CREASING" WILD HORSES MUGG3 DISAPPOINTED A FEAT FOR FIC- 
TION — HORSE AND MONKEY HOOF WISDOM FOR TURFMEN PROS- 
PECTIVE CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE PLAINS THE QUESTION OF 

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION — WANTON SLAUGHTER OF BUFFALO — 
AMOUNT OP ROBES AND MEAT ANNUALLY WASTED — A STRANGE 

HABIT OF THE BISON NUMEROUS BILLS THE "SNEAK THIEF " OF '''^ 

THE PLAINS, 306-317 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A LIVE TOWN AND ITS GRAVE-YARD — HONEST ROMBEAUX IN TROUBLE 

JUDGE LYlTpH HOLDS COURT MARIE AND THE VINE-COVERED COT- 
TAGE THE TERRIBLE FLOODS — DEATH IN CAMP AND IN THE DUG- 
OUT WAS IT THE WATER WHICH DID IT? DISCOVERY OF A HUGE 

FOSSIL THE MOSASAURUS OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA A GLIMPSE 

OF THE REPTILIAN AGE REMINISCENCES OF ALLIGATOR-SHOOTING 

THEY SUGGEST A THEORY, 318-329 



XVIU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

PAGES. 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS THE COLORADO PORTION OF 

THE PLAINS THE GIANT PINES — ATTEMPT TO PHOTOGRAPH A BUF- 
FALO — THINGS GET MIXED THE LEVIATHAN AT HOME A CHAT 

WITH PROFESSOR COPE TWENTY-SIX-INCH OYSTERS REPTILES AND 

FISHES OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA, 330-350 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CONTINUED BY COPE THE GIANTS OF THE SEAS TAKING OUT FOSSILS 

IN A GALE INTERESTING DISCOVERIES — THE GEOLOGY OF THE 

PLAINS, 351-3G5 



CHAPTER XXV. 

A SAVAGE OUTBREAK THE BATTLE OF THE FORTY SCOUTS — THE SUR- 
PRISE — PACK-MULES STAMPEDED — DEATH ON THE ARICKEREE THE 

MEDICINE MAN A DISMAL NIGHT — MESSENGERS SENT TO WALLACE 

MORNING ATTACK WHOSE FUNERAL ? — RELIEF AT LAST THE OLD 

scout's DEVOTION TO THE BLUE, 366-376 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE STAGE DRIVERS OP THE PLAINS — "OLD BOB " JAMAICA AND GIN- 
GER — AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE BEADS OF THE PAST — ROBBING THE 

DEAD A LEAF FROM THE LOST HISTORY OF THE MOUND BUILDERS 

INDIAN TRADITIONS SPECULATIONS — ADOBE HOUSES IN A RAIN 

CHEAP LIVING WATCH TOWERS, 377-386 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

OUR PROGRAMME CONCLUDED — FROM SHERIDAN TO THE SOLOMON FIERCE 

WINDS — A TERRIFIC STORM SHAMUS' BLOODY APPARITION AND 

INDIAN WITCH — A RECONNOISSANCE AN INDIAN BURIAL GROVE — A 

contractor's daring and ITS PENALTY MORE VAGABONDIZING 



CONTENTS. XIX 



JOSE AT THK LONG BOW — THE "wiLD UCNTRESS' " COCNTKRPART — 

8HAM03 TREATS CS TO ''CHILE" — THE RESULT, .... 387-395 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE BLOCK-HOUSE ON THE SOLOMON — HOW THE OLD MAN DIED — WACONDA 

DA — LEGEND OF WA-BOG-AHA AND HEWGAW — SABBATH MORNING 

sachem's poetical EPITAPH AN ALARM BATTLE BETWEEN AN 

EMIGRANT AND THE INDIANS — WAS IT THE 8YDNEYS? — TO THB 

RESCUE AN ELK HUNT ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP NOVEL MODE 

OF HUNTING TURKEYS IN CAMP ON THE SOLOMON A WARM WEL- 
COME, 396-415 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

OUR LAST NIGHT TOGETHER — THE RKMAUKAliLE SHED-TAIL DOG — HE 

RESCUES HIS MISTRESS, AND BREAKS UP A MEETING A SKETCH OF 

TERRITORIAL TIMES BY' GRIPE MONTGOMERY'S EXPEDITION FOB THB 

RESCUE OP JOHN BROWN's COMPANIONS — SCALPED, AND CARVING HIS 

OWN EPITAPH — AN IRISH JACOB "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST*' 

sachem's POETICAL LETTER — POPPING THE QUESTION ON THE RUN — 

THB professor's LETTER, 416-428 



CONTENTS OF APPENDIX. 



PAOEB. 
PEBLIMINAEY TO THE APPENDIX, 431, 432 

CHAPTER FIRST. 

COME TO THE GREAT WEST — SHOULD THERE NOT BE COMPULSORY EMI- 
GRATION "GET A GOOD READY " — HOMESTEAD LAWS AND REGULA- 
TIONS — THE STATE OF KANSAS THE COST OF A FARM A FEW MORE 

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS, 433-450 



CHAPTER SECOND. 

HUNTING THE BUFFALO — ANTELOPE HUNTING ELK HUNTING — TURKEY 

HUNTING GENERAL REMARKS — WHAT TO DO IF LOST ON THE PLAINS 

— THE NEW FIELD FOR SPORTSMEN, 451-463 



CHAPTER THIRD. 

"by THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES" — THE GREAT WEST 

FALL OF THE RIVERS THE PRINCIPAL RIVERS AND VALLEYS OF 

BUFFALO LAND — THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE — THE SOLOMON AND 

SMOKY HILL RIVERS THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES 

— STOCK RAISING IN THE GREAT WEST — THE CATTLE HIVE OF «ORTH 

AMERICA THE CLIMATE OP THE PLAINS — CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE 

PLAINS — THE TREES AND FUTURE FORESTS OF THE PLAINS THE 

SUPPLY OF FUEL DISTRICTS CONTIGUOUS TO THE PLAINS THE VAL- 
LEYS OF THE WHITE EARTH AND NIOBRARA NEW MEXICO: ITS 

SOIL, CLIMATE, RESOURCES, ETC. THE DISAPPEARING BISON THE 

FISH WITH LEGS THE MOUNTAIN SUPPLY OF LUMBER FOR THE 

PLAINS, 465-503 

(XX) 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



F'rom Original Dratcings by Jlcnry Worrnll, and Actual Photographs. 
The Engraving by tlie Bureau of Illustration, Buffalo, N, T. 



nam 



Feontispiecb, Facing Title Pack 

Alaskan Lovers — Sealing the Contract, 27 

Alaskan Game of Old Sledgb, 27 

"Waukardsa," 33 

"Toasts HIS Moccasixed Feet BY THE Fire," 33 

Thb Professor — A Remarkable Stone 39 

Tammany Sachem — Prospective and Retrospective, .... 39 

Colon and Semi-colon, 43 

David Pythagoras, M. D., 43 

One of the Muggses, 47 

Shamus Dobeen — His Card, 53 

Hon. T. Gripe (Beatified), 53 

"Sperit, Gentlemen!" 57 

Our First Bird-Shootino, 60 

Jddge Lynch— His Court, 77 

Unnaturalized, 91 

Naturalized, 91 

(xxi) 



xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PASS 



"You've Riled THAT Brook" — An Old Fable Modernized, ... 96 

Doa Town — The Happy Family, 95 

Indian Rock — From a Photograph, 105 

Mushroom Rock — From a Photograph, 105 

Fire on THE Plains, ACCORDING TO Novels, 115 

Fire on the Plains, as it is, 115 

"And Erin's Son Christens those Far-off Points op the Pacific Rail- 
road with his Blood," 127 

Gentle Zephyrs — Going off without a Drawback, .... 133 

"Looked like the End OF A Tail," 137 

The Rare Old Plainsman of the Novels, 137 

Wild Bill — From a Photograph, 147 

Buffalo Bill — From a Photograph, 147 

Our Horses Run Away with Us, 157 

The Pipe of Peace — The Professor's Dilemma, 167 

White Wolf at Home, 172 

The Wild Denizens of the Plains, 197 

Smashing a Cheyenne Black-Kettle, 219 

Midnight Serenade on the Plains, 227 

Going after Ammunition, 259 

Battle between Cheyennes and Pawnees, 271 

One of our Specimens — Photographed by J. Lee Knight, Topeka, . 301 

Wanton Destruction of Buffalo, Embracing: 

Daily, for Fun, 305 

300 A Day for Pleasure, 305 

For Excitement, 305 

100,000 for Tongues, 305 

2,000,000 for Robes, to get Whisky, 305 

Dug Out 329 

Taking and Being Taken, 335 

Developing — One ok the First Families, 349 

The Sea which once Covered the Plains 357 

Waconda Da — Great Spirit Salt Spring, 399 



LIST OF ILLUSTEATIOXS. xxiu 



rxsM 



More of our Specimens (Photographed by J. Lbe Knight), Embracing: 

Prairie Chickens, 413 

Head of an Elk, 413 

Wild Turkey, 413 

Beaver, 413 



BUFFALO LAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE OBJECT OP OCR EXPEDITION — A OLIMPSE OF ALASKA THROUGH CAPTAIN WALRU3' 

GLASS — WE ABE TEMPTED BY OUR RECENT PURCHASE ALASKAN GAME OF "OLD 

sledge" — THE EARLY STRUGGLES OP KANSAS — THE SMOKY HILL TRAIL — INDIAN 
HIGH ART — THE "BORDER-RUFFIAN," PAST AND PRESENT — TOPEKA HOW IT RE- 
CEIVED ITS NAME WAUKARUSA AND ITS LEGEND. 

THE great plains — the region of country in whicli 
our expedition sojourned for so many months — is 
wilder, and by far more interesting, than those soli- 
tudes over which the Egyptian Sphynx looks out. 
The latter are barren and desolate, while the former 
teem with their savage races and scarcely more savage 
beasts. The very soil which these tread is written all 
over with a history of the past, even its surface giving 
to science wonderful and countless fossils of those ages 
when the world was young and man not yet born. 

At first, it was rather unsettled which way the 
steps of our party would turn ; between unexplored 
territory and that newly acquired, there were several 
fields open which promised much of interest. Orig- 
inally, our company numbered a dozen ; but Alaska 
tempted a portion of our savans, and to the fishy and 
frigid maiden they yielded, drawn by a strange predi- 
lection for train-oil and seal meat toward the land of 

(25) 



26 BUFFALO LATs^D. 

furs. For the remainder of our party, however, life 
under the Ahiskan's tent-pole had no charms. Our 
decision may have been influenced somewhat by the 
seafaring man with whom our friends were to sail — 
Captain Walrus, of the bark Harpoon. This worthy, 
according to his own statement, had been born on a 
whaler, and weaned among the Esquimeaux, and, 
moreover, had frozen off eight toes "trying to winter 
it at our recent purchase." He evidently disliked to 
have scientific men aboard, intent on studying eclipses 
and seals. "A heathenish and strange people are the 
Alaskans," Walrus was wont to say. "What is not 
Indian is Russian^ and a compound of the latter and 
aboriginal is a mixture most villainous. One portion 
of the partnership anatomy takes to brandy, while 
the other absorbs train-oil, and so a half-breed Alas- 
kan heathen is always prepared for spontaneous com- 
bustion. Rubbed the wrong way, he flames up in- 
stantly. He is always hot for murder, and if you 
throw cold water on his designs, his oily nature 
sheds it" 

And many a yarn did the captain spin concerning 
their strange customs. Sealing a marriage contract 
consisted in the warrior leaving a fat seal at the hole 
of the hut, where his intended crawled in to her 
home privileges of smoke and fish. Their favorite 
game was "old sledge," played with prisoners to 
shorten their captivity. 

All this, and much more, probably equally true, we 
had picked up of Alaskan history, and at one time 
our chests had been packed for a voyage on the Har- 
poon; but at the final council the west carried it 



i^' 



^A 



-r 



"f^^^ 






"bleeding KANSAS." 29 

against the north, and our steps were directed toward 
the setting sun, instead of the polar star. 

The expedition afforded unexcelled fjicilities for 
seeing Buffalo Land. It was composed of good ma- 
terial, and pursued its chosen path successfully, 
though under difficulties which would have turned 
back a less determined party. 

None of our company, I trust, will consider it an 
unwarrantable license which recounts to others the 
personal peculiarities and mistakes about which we 
joked so freely while in camp. It was generally un- 
derstood, before we parted, that the adventures should 
be common stock for our children and children's 
children. Why should not the great public share in 
it also ? 

Let the reader place before him a checker-board, 
and allow it to represent Kansas, whose shape and 
outline it much resembles ; the half nearest him will 
stand for the eastern or settled portion of the State, 
of which the other half is embraced in Buffalo Land 
proper. It is with the latter that we have first to do, 
as with it we first became acquainted. 

Our party entered the State at Kansas City, and 
took the cars for Topeka, its capital. During our 
morning ride through the valley of the Kaw, memory 
went backward to the vears when "Bleedino- Kan- 
sas " was the signal-cry of emancipation. When gray 
old Time, a decade and a half ago, was writing the his- 
tory of those bright children of Freedom, the united 
sisterhood, a virgin arm reached over his shoulder, 
and a fair young hand, stained with its own life- 



30 BUFFALO LAND. 

blood, wrote on the page toward which all the world 
was gazing, "I am Kansas, latest-born of America. 
I would be free, yet they would make me a slave. 
Save me, my sisters ! " The great heart of our nation 
was sorely distressed. Conscience pointed to one 
path — Policy, that rank hypocrite, to another. 

And so it was that the young queen, with her 
grand domain in the West, struggled forward to lay 
her fealty at the feet of our great mother. Liberty. 
She made a body-guard of her own sons, and their 
number was quickly swelled by brave hearts from the 
north, east, and west. The new territory, begging 
admission as a • State, became a battle-ground. 
Slavery had reached forth its hand to grasp the new 
State and fresh soil, but the mutilated member was 
drawn back with wounds which soon reached, cor- 
rupted and destroyed the body. In this land of the 
Far West a nation of young giants had been suddenly 
developed, and Kansas was forever won for freedom. 

But there was yet another enemy and another dan- 
ger. Westward, toward Colorado, the savage's toma- 
hawk and knife glittered, and struck among the 
affrighted settlements. Ad Astra ])er Asperay " to the 
stars through difficulties," the State exclaims on the 
seal, and to the stars, through blood, its course has 
been. 

Those old pages of history are too bloody to be 
brought to light in the bright present, and we purpose 
turning them only enough to gather what will be 
now of practical use. Kansas suffered cruelly, and 
brooded over her wrongs, but she has long since struck 
hands with her bitterer foe. Most of the " Border 



THE SMOKY HILL TEAIL. 31 

Ruffians " ripened on gallows trees, or fell by the 
sword, years ago. A few, however, are yet spared, 
to cheer their old age by riding around in desolate 
woods at midnight, wrapped in damp nightgowns, 
and masked in grinning death-heads. Although the 
mists of shadow-land are chilling their hearts, yet 
those organs, at the cry of blood, beat quick again, 
like regimental drums, for action. 

The Kaw or the Kansas River, the valley of which 
we were traversing, is the principal stream of the 
State — in length to the mouth of the Republican one 
hundred and fifty miles, and above that, under the 
name of Smoky Hill, three hundred miles more. 

The " Smoky Hill trail " is a familiar name in 
many an American home. It was the great Califor- 
nia path, and many a time the demons of the plain 
gloated over fair hair, yet fresh from a mother's touch 
and blessing. And many a faint and thirsty trav- 
eler has flung himself with a burst of gratitude on 
the sandy bed of the desolate river, and thanked the 
Great Giver of all good for the concealed life found 
under the sand, and with the strength thus sucked 
from the bosom of our much-abused mother, he has 
pushed onward until at length the grand mountains 
and great parks of Colorado burst upon his delighted 
vision. 

About noon we arrived at Topeka, the capital, 
well situated on the south bank of the river, having 
a comfortable, well-to-do air, which suggests the quiet 
satisfaction of an honest burgher after a morning of 
toil. The slavery billow of agitation rolled even thus 
far from beyond the border of the state. Armed men 



32 BUFFALO la:n^d. 

rode over the beautiful prairies, some east, some 
west — one band to transplant slavery from the tainted 
soil of Missouri, another to pluck it up. 

A small party of Free State men settled upon this 
beautiful prairie. South flowed the Waukarusa, 
south and east the Shunganunga, and west and north 
the Kaw or Kansas. Here thrived a bulbous root, 
much loved by the red man, and here lazy Potta- 
watomies gathered in the fall to dig it. In size and 
somewhat in shape, it resembled a goose egg, and had 
a hard, reddish broAvn shell, and an interior like 
damaged dough. The Indian gourmands ate it 
greedily and called it "Topeka." From the two or 
three families of refugee Free State men the town 
grew up, and from the Indian root it took its 
name. Its christening took place in the first cabin 
erected, and it is reported that a now prominent 
banker of the town stood sponsor, with his back 
against the door, refusing any egress until the name 
of his choice was accepted. It is even affirmed that 
one opposing city founder was pulled back by his 
coat-tail from an attempted escape up the wide 
chimney. 

The old Indian love of commemorating events by 
significant names is well illustrated in Kansas. One 
example may be given here. Waukarusa once op- 
posed its swollen tide to an exploring band of red 
men. Now, from time beyond ken, the noble savage 
has been illustrious for the ingenuity with which he 
lays all disagreeable duties upon the shoulders of the 
patient squaw. He may ride to their death, in free 
wild sport, the bison multitudes; but their skins 




WAUKARUSA." 




TOASTS HIS MOCCASINFD FKF.T BY THE KIRE." 



*'WAUKARUSA." 35 

must be converted into marketable robes, and the 
flesh into jerked meat, by the ugly and over-worked 
partner of his bosom. While she pins the raw hide 
to earth, and bends patiently over, fleshing it with 
horn hatchet for weary hours, the stronger vessel, his 
abdominal recesses wadded with buffalo meat, toasts 
his moccasined feet by the fire, fills his lungs with 
smoke from villainous killikinick, and muses sooth- 
ingly of white scalps and happy hunting grounds. 

Ox-like maiden, happy " big injun ! " you both be- 
long to an age and a history well nigh past, and let us 
rejoice that it is so. 

But to return to the band long since gathered into 
aboriginal dust whom we left pausing on the banks 
of the Waukarusa. " Deej) water, bad bottom ! " 
grunted the braves, and, nothing doubting it, one lov- 
ing warrior pushed his wife and her pony over the 
bank to test the matter. From the middle of the 
tide the squaw called back, "Waukarusa" (thigh 
deep), and soon had gained the opposite bank in 
safety. Then and there the creek received its name, 
" Waukarusa." 

We procured a remarkable sketch, in the well 
known Indian style of high art, commemorative of 
this event. It has alwavs struck us that the sava2:e 
order of drawing resembles very much that of the 
ancient Egyptian — except in the matter of drawing 
at sight, with bow or rifle, on the white man. 



CHAPTER II. 

A CHAPTER OF INTRODUCTIONS— PROFESSOR PALEOZOIC — TAMMANY SACHEM — DOCTOR 

PYTHAGORAS GENUINE MUGGS COLON AND SEMI-COLON SHAMUS DOBEEN 

TENACIOUS GRIPE — BUGS AND PHILOSOPHY — HOW GRIPE BECAME A REPUBLICAN. 

WHEX permission was given me to draw upon 
the journal of our trip for such material as I 
might desire, it was stipulated that the camp-names 
should be adhered to. A company on the plains is 
no respecter of persons, and titles which might have 
caused offense before starting were received in good 
part, and worn gracefully thenceforward. 

Our leader, Professor Paleozoic, ordinarily existed 
in a sort of transition state between the primary 
and tertiary formations. He could tell cheese from 
chalk under the microscope, and show that one was 
full of the fossil and the other of the living evidences 
of animal life. A worthy man, vastly more troubled 
with rocks on the brain than "rocks" in the pocket. 

Learning had once come near making him mad, 
but from this sad fate he was happily saved by a 
somewhat Pickwickian blunder. While in Kansas, 
some years since, he penetrated a remote portion of 
the wilderness, where, as he was happy in believing, 
none but the native savage, or, possibly, the prime- 
val man, could ever have tarried long enough to leave 
any sign behind. Imagine his astonishment and 

(36) 



A PICKWICKIAX BLUNDER. 37 

delight, therefore, when from the tangled grass he 
drew an upright stone, with lines chiseled on three 
sides and on the fourth a rude fiirure resemblinir 
more than any thing else one of those odd fictions 
which geologists call restored specimens. On a ledge 
near were huge depressions like foot-prints. They 
were foot-prints of birds, no doubt, and quite as per- 
fect as those found in more favored localities, and 
from which whole skeletons had been constructed by 
learned men. 

Both specimens were forwarded to, and at the 
expense of, noted savans of the East. Our professor 
called the pillar from the tangled grass an altar 
raised by early races to the winds. The short lines, 
he suggested, designated the different points of the 
compass, while the rude figure was intended for 
Boreas. Our scientists toward the rising sun met 
the boxes at the depot, paid charges, and careful 
draymen bore them to the expectant museum. 

One hour after, seven wise men might have been 
seen wending their way sorrowfully homeward, with 
hands crossed meditatively under their coat-tails, and 
pocket vacuums where lately were modern coins. 
Government clearly had a case against our professor. 
Science decided that he had removed a stone telling 
in surveyors^ signs just what section and township 
it was on. The figure which he had imagined a 
heathen idea of Boreas was the fancy of some sur- 
veyor's idle moment — a shocking sketch of an im- 
possible buffalo, ^\^lether the bird-tracks had a 
common orio-in, or were hewn bv the hatchets of the 
red man, is a point still under discussion. 



38 BUFFALO LAND. 

A worthy man, as before remarked, was the pro- 
fessor, full of knowledge, genial in camp, and, having 
rubbed his eye-tooth on a section stone, geological 
authority of the highest order. When the professor 
said a particular rock belonged to the cretaceous for- 
mation, one might safely conclude that no modern 
influences had been at work either on that rock or 
in that vicinity. That question was settled. 

Next came Tammany Sachem, our heavy weight 
and our mystery. Before joining our party, he had 
been a New York alderman, noted for prowess in 
annual aldermanic clam-bakes at Coney Island. He 
was wont to exhibit a medal, the prize of such a 
tournament, on which several immense clams were 
racing to the griddle, for the honor of being devoured 
by the city fathers. 

A green-ribbed hunting coat traversed his rotund- 
ity, which had the generous swell of a puncheon. 
His face was reddish, and his nose like a beacon- 
light against a sunset sky. When you thought him 
awake, he was half asleep ; when you thought him 
asleep, he was wide awake. A look of extreme 
happiness always beamed on his face when mis- 
fortunes impended. Per contra, successes made him 
suspicious and morose. New York aldermen have 
always been a puzzle to the nation at large. Per- 
haps our friend's facial contradictions, put on origin- 
ally as one of the tricks of the trade, had become 
chronic from long usage. We have since learned 
that the sachems of Tammany laugh the loudest 
and joke the most freely when under affliction. 

When I was appointed editor, the Sachem volun- 



^--:g^ 





CUPID AND CLAMS. 41 

teei'cd as local reporter. Many of the items he 
gathered are entered in our log-book in rhyme, and 
to these pages some of them are transferred verba- 
tim. In wooing the muses, our alderman certainly 
acted out of character. The ideal poet is thin in- 
stead of obese, and he is a reckless innovator who 
lays claim to any measure of the divine afflatus 
without possessing either a pale face, thin form, or 
a garret. 

As to what drove a Xew York alderman to the 
society of buffaloes, we had but one explanation, 
and that was Sachem's own. We knew that he dis- 
liked women in every form, Sorosis and Anti-Sorosis, 
bitter and sweet alike. According to his statement, 
made to us in good fiiith, and which I chronicle in 
the same, Cupid had once essayed to drive a dart 
into Sachem's heart, but, in doing so, the barb also 
struck and wounded his liver. As his love increased, 
his health failed. His liver became affected in the 
same ratio as his heart. This was touching our 
alderman in a tender spot. Imagine a New York 
city father without digestion ; what a subject of scorn 
he would become to his constituency! Our alderman 
fled from Cupid, clams, and his beloved Gotham, and 
sought health and buffalo on the plains of Kansas. 
As he remarked to us pathetically: "A good liver 
makes a good husband. Indigestion frightens con- 
nubial bliss out of the window. Pills, my boy, pills 
is the quietus of love. If you wish Cupid to leave, 
give him a dose of 'em. The liver, instead of the 
heart, is at the bottom of half the suicides." 

Doctor Pythagoras in years was fifty, and in stature 
'3 



42 BUFFALO LAXD. 

short. His favorite theory was " development," and 
this he carried to depths which would have astonished 
Darwin himself. How humble he used to make us 
feel by digging at the roots of the family tree until its 
uttermost fiber lay between an oyster and a sj^onge ! 
(Rumor charged, him with waiting so long for diseases 
to develop, that his patients developed into spirits.) 
While he indorsed Darwin, however, he also admired 
Pythagoras. The latter's doctrine of metempsychosis 
he Darwinized. In their transmigration from one 
bod}'' to another, souls developed, taking a higher or- 
der of being with each change, until finall}' fitted to 
enter the land of spirits. The soul of a jack-of-all- 
trades was one which developed slowly, and picked 
up a new craft with each new body. Like P\'thag- 
oras, he remembered several previous bodies which 
his soul had animated, among others that of the orig- 
inal Karey, who existed in Egpyt some centuries be- 
fore the modern usurper was born. If souls proved 
entirely unworthy during the probationary or human 
period, they were cast back into the brute creation to 
try it over again. To this class belonged prize-fight- 
ers. Congressmen, and the like. With them the past 
was a blank — an unsuccessful problem washed from 
the slate. The doctor had a hobby that a vicious 
horse was only a vicious man entered into a lower or- 
der of being. To demonstrate this he had traveled, 
and still persisted in traveling, on eccentric horses, 
for the purpose of reasoning with them. But his 
Egyptian lore had been lost in transmission, and his 
falls, kicks, and bites became as many as the moons 
which had passed over his head. 



THE MUGGSES. 45 

Genuine Muggs was an Englishman. The an- 
tipodes of Tammany Sachem, who would not believe 
any thing, Muggs swallowed every thing. lie had 
already absorbed so much in this way that he knew 
all about the United States before visitini;- it. Given 
half a chance, he would undoubtedly have told the 
savage more about the hitter's habits than the ab- 
origine himself knew. It was positiv^ely impossible 
for him to learn any thing. His round British body 
was so full of indisputable facts that another one 
would have burst it. In the Presidential alphabet, 
from Alpha Washington to Omega Grant, he knew 
nil of our rulers' tricks and trades, and understofid 
better the crooked ways of the White House than our 
own talented Jenkins. 

British phlegm incased his soul, and British 
leather his feet. From heel to crown he was com- 
})letel\' a Briton. His mutton-chop whiskers came 
just so far, and the h's dropped in and out of his ut- 
teriugs in a perfectly natural way. In the Briton's 
al[)habet. Sachem used to remark, the / is so big that 
it is no wonder the // is often crowded out. 

]Muggs was a fair representative of the average 
Englishman who has traveled somewhat. The eye- 
teeth of these persons are generally cut with a slasli. 
and they are forever after sore-mouthed. For a 
maiden effort they never suck knowledge gently in, 
but attempt a gulp which strangles. The conse- 
quence of this hasty acquiring is a bloated condition. 
The partly-traveled Briton seems, at first acquaint- 
ance, full and swollen with knowledge ; but should 



46 BUFFALO LAND. 

the student of learning apply the prick, the result ob- 
tained will generally prove to be — gas. 

Over our great country, some of the family of 
Muggs meet one at every turn. Often they scurry 
along solitarily, but occasionally in groups. In the 
former case they are unsocial to every body — in the 
latter to every body except their own party. The 
bliss which comes from ignorance must be of a thor- 
oughly enjoyable nature, for the Muggses certainly 
do enjoy themselves. They will pass through a coun- 
try, remaining completely uncommunicative and self- 
wrapped, and know less of it after six months' traveling 
than an American in two. The professor says he has 
met them in the lonely parks of the Rocky Mount- 
ains and in the fishing and hunting solitudes of the 
Canadas. If they have been an unusually long time 
without seeing a human being, they may possibly 
catch at an eye-glass and fling themselves abruptly 
into a few remarks. But it is in a tone which says, 
plainer than words, "No use in your going any 
further, man ; I have absorbed all the beauties and 
knowledge of this locality." 

It is a rare treat to see a coach delivered of Muggs 
at a country inn. "Hi, porter, look hout for my lug- 
gage, you know. Tell the publican some chops, rare, 
and lively now, and a mug of hale, and, if I can 'ave 
it, a room to myself." If the latter request is 
granted, and you are inquisitive enough to take a 
peep, you may see Muggs sturdily surveying himself 
in the glass, and giving certain satisfied pats to his 
cravat and waistcoat, as if to satisfy them that they 
covered a Briton. Could the mirror which reflects 




ONE OF THE MUGGSES. 



COLON SENIOR. 49 

his face also reflect his thoughts, they would read 
about as follows : " Muggs, you are a Briton, and this 
hotel must be made aware of the f;\ct. Whatever 
you do, be guilty of no un-English act while in this 
outlandish land. Your skin is now full of knowl- 
edge, and let not other travelers, like so many mos- 
quitoes, suck it from you. Your forefathers blessed 
their eyes and dropped their h's, and so must you." 
And perhaps by this time, if the chops have arrived, 
he dines in seclusion and, by so doing, loses a fund of 
information which his fellow-travelers have obtained 
by common exchange. 

Again on the Avay, Muggs nestles in a corner of 
the coach and acts strictly on the defensive, indig- 
nantly withdrawing his square-toed, thick-soled Eng- 
lish shoes, should neighboring feet attempt to hob- 
nob with them. On a trip through Buffalo Land, 
however, it is difficult for one of her Britannic Maj- 
esty's subjects to maintain the national dignity. But 
this fact Genuine Muggs — our Muggs — evidently did 
not know. Had he done so, he would never have 
gone with us in the world. 

Another of our party rejoiced in the appellation of 
"Colon.'* He obtained this title because his eccen- 
tric specialities of character several times came very 
near putting if not a full stop, at least the next thing 
to it, upon the particular page of history which our 
party was making. Longitudinal!}", Mr. Colon was 
all of five feet eleven ; in circumference, perhaps a 
score or so of inches. He possessed a fair share of 
oddities, and what is better an equally fair one of dol- 
lars. The hemispheres of his philanthropic brain 



50 BUFFALO LAND. 

seemed equally pre-empted by philosophy and bugs. 
Engaging in some immense work for the ameliora- 
tion of mankind, he would pursue it with ardor, dwell 
upon it with unction, and then suddenly leave it, half 
finished, to capture a rare spider. Philosophy and 
Entomology had constant combat for Colon, and vic- 
tory tarried with neither long enough for the seat 
of war to be cultivated and blossom with any lux- 
uriance. At the time he joined our party one of his 
grandest charitable projects had lately died in a very 
early period of infancy, entirely supplanted in his 
affections for the time being by the prospect of a 
chase after Brazilian insects. During our journey it 
was no uncommon thing for us to see his thin form 
all covered with bugs and reptiles, which had crawled 
out of the collecting boxes carried in his pockets. 
If this meets our friend's e3^e, let him bear no malice, 
but reflect, in the language of his own invariable 
answer to our remonstrances, ''It can't be helped." 
Sliould the public parade of his faults be disagreea- 
ble, he can suffer no more from them now than we did 
in the past, and may perhaps call them into closer 
quarters for the future. 

Mr. Colon's son, of two years less than a score, we 
dubbed Semi-colon, as being a smaller edition, or to 
be exact, precisely one-half of what the senior Colon 
was. So perfect was the concord of the two that the 
junior had fallen into a chronic and to us amusing- 
habit of answering " Ditto " to the senior's expressions 
of opinion. Divide the father's conversation by two, 
add an assent to every thing, and the result, socially 
considered, would be the son. It may readily be seen, 



DOBEEX AXD GRIPE. 51 

therefore, why the professor for short shouhl call him, 
as he nearly always did, " Semi." 

Shamus Dobeen, our cook and body-servant, accord- 
ing to his own account, was the child of an impov- 
erished but noble Irish family. Indeed, we doubt if 
any Irishman was ever promoted from shovel laborer 
to body-servant without suddenly remembering that 
he was "descinded" from a line of kings. At the 
time Shamus was added to the population of Ireland, 
the patrimonial estate had dwindled down to a peat 
bog. As this soon " petered out," Shamus went 
from the exhausted moor into the cold world. He 
had been by turns expelled patriot, dirt disturber on 
new railroads, gunner on a Confederate cruiser, and 
high private in a Union regiment. The position of 
gunner he lost by touching off a piece before the 
muzzle had been run out, in consequence of which 
part of the vessel's side went off suddenly with the 
gun. Captured, he readily became a Union soldier, 
and could, without doubt, have transformed himself 
into a Cheyenne, or a Patagonian, had occasion for 
either ever required. 

While in Topeka, our party made the acquaintance 
of Tenacious Gripe, a well-known Kansas politician, 
and who attached himself to us for the trip. Every 
person in the State knew him, had known him in 
territorial times, and would know him until either 
the State or he ceased to be. 

Flung headlong from somewhere into Kansas dur- 
ing the "border ruffian" period, he would probably 
have passed as rapidly out of it had he been allowed 
to do so peaceably. But as the slavery party en- 



52 BUFFALO LAND. 

deavored to push him, he concluded to stick. At 
that particuhir time, he was a moderate Democrat or 
conservative Republican, and consequently had no 
particular principles. But the slavery party sup- 
posed he had, and to them accordingly he became 
an object of suspicion. They assumed the aggres- 
sive, and he at once resolved into a staunch Repub- 
lican. Had the latter first struck liim, he would 
have been as staunch a Democrat. And Gripe has 
never known how near he came to being the latter. 
The Republicans had just decided to order him out 
of the state as a border ruffian spy, when the Demo- 
crats took action and did so for his not being one. 
Those were troublous times. He went to the front 
at once in the antislavery ranks, and has stayed there 
ever since. Sore-headed men are apt to become 
famous. There were those in our late war who were 
kicked by adversity into the very arms of Fame. 

Our friend had been in both the upper and lower 
houses of the State Legislature, and had rolled Con- 
gressional logs, moreover, until he was hardly happy 
without having his hands on one. 



||l|!|^5i!fSf'fll!illill|lit!l|Nl|;S|Vp^^ 





■'"'-■ ■'•-'^^'/•■'•^;?%%^s 



CHAPTER III. 

THB TOPEKA AUCTIONEER — MCGGS GETS A BARGAIN — CYNOCEPHALUS — INDIAN 8DM- 
MBR IN KANSAS — HUNTING PRAIRIE CHICKENS OUR FIRST DAY's SPORT. 

WE had three or four days to spend in Topcka. 
as it was there that we were to purchase our 
outfit for the buffiilo region. With the latter purpose 
in view, we were wandering along Kansas Avenue 
the next morning, wlicn a horseman came furi- 
ously down the street, shouting, at the top of his 
lungs, "Sell um as he wars har!" Semi hastily re- 
treated behind Mr. Colon, thinking it might be a 
Jayhawker, while the professor adjusted his glasses. 

Muggs said the individual reminded him of the 
famous charo-c at Balaklava, Mui>-o-s had never seen 
Balaklava, but other Englishmen had, which an- 
swered the same purpose. 

The equestrian proved to be a well-known auc- 
tioneer of Topeka, who may be discovered at almost 
any time tearing through the streets on some spavined 
or bow-legged old cob, auctioneering it off as he goes. 
His favorite expression is, " I '11 sell um as he wars 
har." What particular selling charm lies concealed 
in this announcement even Gripe could not tell. 
Sachem thought that possibly he had been brought 
up at some exposed frontier post, where, on account 
of Indian prejudices, wearing hair is a rare luxury. 

(55) 



Ob BUFFALO l.\M>. 

To say tlioro tli;it a man was still ablo to comb his 
own scali>-KH-k donotovl an o\traoi\linary state of 
phvsioal perfection. Expressions of }n'aise for hu- 
mans are often applied to horses, and so, perhaps, 
the one in question. *• I have heard,'' quoth our 
ahlernian, in support of this assertion, "Fitz say of 
a belle, at a charity ball, what a "bootiful cweature;' 
and I have heard him, the day after, in his stable, 
say the same thing of his horse." 

That horse-auction was a sight worth seeing. The 
crowd collected most thickly on the corner of Kansas 
Avenue and Sixth Street, and before it the cob came 
to a stand. And it was a stand — as stifl:' and pain- 
ful as that ot^ a retired veteran put on dress parade. 
The limbs would have had full duty to perform in 
supporting the carcass alone, which had evidently 
been in light marching order for years past. The 
additional weight of the auctioneer must certainly 
have proved altogether too much, had not the 
horse heard, for the tirst time, of the wonderful 
qualities with which he was still endowed. 

Seeing a whole corner, with gaping mouths, swallow- 
ing the statement that he Avas only six years old, 
reduceil by hard work, and could, after three months 
grass, pull a ton of coal, he would have been a thank- 
less horse indeetl, which could not strain a point, or 
all his points, for such a rider. 

And so. when the spurs suddenly rattled against 
his ribs, the old skin full of bones gave a snort of 
pain, which the auctioneer called "Sperit, gentle;«^« ! " 
and away up the broad avenue he rolled, at a speed 
which threatened to break the rider's neck, and his 



AX UNFORTUNATE WINK. 59 

own legs as well. His tail having- been cut short in 
youth, and retrimmed in old age, the outfit made but 
a sorry figure going up the street. The Professor 
said it suggested the idea of some fossil vertabra, with 
a paint brush attached to its end, running away with 
a geological student. 

After the return and cries fen* more bids, ^Muggs 
must have winked at the auctioneer — possibly, to 
slyly telegraph him the ft\ct that in "Kengland" 
they were up to such games. At least the auctioneer 
so declared, and advancing the price one dollar in 
accordance therewith, finally knocked the brute down 
to him. Then the British wrath bubbled and boiled. 
The auctioneer was inexorable. Muggs had winked, 
and that was an advanced bid, according to com- 
mercial custom the land over. Articles were often 
sold simply by the vibration of an eyelash, and not 
a word uttered. 

The Professor remarked that in law wiidvs would 
doubtless be accepted as evidence. It was a recog- 
nized principle of the statutes that he who winked at 
a matter acquiesced in it, and indeed such signals 
were often more exj^ressive than words. Sachem 
sustained this point, and added further that he had 
known many a man's head broken on account of an 
injudicious wink. 

The crowd, with almost unanimous voice, pro- 
nounced the auctioneer right and Muggs wrong. 

"Me take the brute!" exclaimed the indignant 
Briton; "why he can 'ardly stand up long enough to 
be knocked down. Except in France, he could be 
put to no earthly use whatever. 'Is knees knock to- 



60 BUFFALO LAND. 

getlier in an ague quartette, and 'is tail — look at it! 
It's hincapable of knocking a fly off; looks more like 
flying off hitself ! " Muggs further declared the sale 
was an attempt on the owner's part to evade the 
health officer, who would have been around, in a 
couple of days, to have the carcass removed. 

The auctioneer waxed belligerent, the crowd noisy, 
and Muggs, like a true Englishman, secured peace 
at the price of British gold. The horse was on his 
hands, having barely escaped being on the town, 
and an enthusiastic crowd of urchins escorted the 
purchase to a livery stable. Muggs christened the 
animal Cynocephalus, and soon afterward sold him to 
Mr. Colon, Avho was of an economical turn, for the 
use of his son Semi. 

"I have heard," said the thoughtful father, "that 
the buffalo grass of the plains is very nourishing. 
All that the poor steed needs is care and fat pastures. 
Semi can give him the former, and over the latter 
our future journey lies. I have also learned that 
what is especially needed in a hunting horse is 
steadiness, and this quality the animal certainly 
possesses." 

From some months' acquaintance with the pur- 
chase, we can say that Cynocephalus was steady to a 
remarkable degree. We are firmly persuaded that a 
heavy battery might have fired a salute over his back 
without moving him, unless, possibly, the concussion 
knocked him down. 

Our first hunting morning, the second day pre- 
ceding our hegira westward, came to us with a clear 
sky, the sun shedding a mellow warmth, and the air 




l: 



'flf:iiir 



^{•■m 



INDIAN SUMMER IN KANSAS. 61 

full of those exhilarating qualities which our lungs 
afterward drank in so freely on the plains. Indian 
summer, delightful anywhere, is especially so in 
Kansas. 

From the advance guard of the winter king not a 
single chilling zephyr steals forward among the tar- 
rying ones of summer. Soothing and gentle as when 
laden with spicy fragrance south, they here shower 
the whole land with sunbeams. Earth no longer 
seems a heavy, inert mass, but floats in that smok}', 
fleecy atmosphere with which artists delight so much 
to wrap their angels, It is as if the warmer, lighter 
clouds of sunny weather were nestling close to earth, 
frightened from the skies, like a flock of white swans, 
at the October howls of winter. But I never could 
agree with those writers who call this season dreamy. 
If such it be, it is surely a dream of motion. All na- 
ture appears quickened. The inhabitants of the air 
have commenced their southern pilgrimnge, and the 
oldest and leading ganders may be heard croaking, 
day-time and night-time, to their wedge-shaped flocks 
their narrative of summer experiences at the Arctic 
circle, and their commands for the present journey. 

Sachem, I find, has recorded as a discovery in nat- 
ural history that geese form* their flocks in wedge 
shape that they may easier "make a split" for the 
south when Nature, with her north pole, stirs up 
their feeding and breeding-grounds in November 
gales, and changes their fields of operation into fields 
of ice. Sachem was sadly addicted to slang phrases. 

All game, I may remark, is wilder at this season 
of the year than earlier. If the earth is dreaming. 



62 BUFFALO LAND. 

its wild inliabitants certainly arc not. Men, too, have 
thrown off the summer lethargy, and shave their 
neighbors as closely as ever. If any one thinks it a 
dreamy season of the year, let him test the matter 
practically by being a day or two behindhand with a 
payment. 

In reply to a question, the professor told us that 
the smoky condition of the atmosphere was probably 
caused by the exhalation of phosphorus from decay- 
ing vegetation. Sachem remarked that out of twenty 
different objects which he had submitted for ex- 
amination, and as many questions that he had asked, 
nine-tenths of the results contained phosphorus in 
some shape. It was becoming monotonous and dan- 
gerous. 

While the party thus mused and speculated, we had 
come out into the open country, south-west of town, 
and were now aj^proaching Webster's Mound, a cone- 
shaped hill from which we afterward obtained some 
excellent views. For the trip we had been supplied 
with two dogs, one a setter, belonging to the private 
secretary of the Governor, and the other a pointer, 
the propert}^ of a real estate dealer. The former was 
an ancient and venerable animal. The rheumatism 
was seized of his backbone and held high revel upon 
the juices which should have lubricated the joints. 
Even his tail wagged with a jerk, inclining the body 
to whichever side it had last swung. lie was so full 
of rheumatism that whenever he scented a chicken 
the pain evoked by the excitement caused him to 
howl with anguish. The pointer, per contra, was 
hale and swift, but had lost one eye ; and a shot from 



THE hunter's triumph. 63 

the same charge which destroyed that organ, rattled 
also on his left ear-drum, and that membrane no 
longer responded to the shouts of the hunter. On 
one side he could see, and not hear — on the other, 
hear, but not see. Nevertheless, with gestures for 
the left view, and shouts on the right, fair work 
might still be obtained. Both dogs rejoiced in the 
uncommon name of Rover, and both possessed that 
most excellent of all points in such animals, a steady 
point. 

If any of my readers are fond of tield-sports, and 
have not yet shot prairie-chickens over a dog, let 
them take their guns and hie to the ^^'cst, and taste 
for themselves of this rare s}K)rt. \Mth tlie wide 
prairie around him, keeping the bird in full view dur- 
ing its passage through the air, one can choose his 
distance for tiring and witness the full effect of his 
shot. I think the brief instant when the flight of the 
bird is checked and it drops head-foremost to earth, is 
the sweetest moment of all to the hunter. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CHICKEN-SHOOTINa CONTINUED — A SCIENTIFIC PARTY TAKE THE BIRDS ON THE 

V^ING — EVILS OP FAST FIRING AN OLD-FASHIONED "SLOW SHOT " THE 

HABITS OF THE PRAIRIE-CHICKEN ITS PROSPECTIVE EXTINCTION — MODE OP 

HUNTING IT — THE GOPHER SCALP LAW. 



w 



E had left the road and were now driving over 
the line prairie skirting Webster's Mound, the 
grass being about a foot high and affording excellent 
cover. Taking advantage of its being matted so 
closely from the early frosts, the old cocks hid under 
the thick tufts and called for close work on the i)art 
of our dogs. 

Back and forth across our path these intelligent 
animals ranged, the one fifty yards or so to our right, 
the other as many to our left, crossing and re-cross- 
ing, with open mouths drinking in- eagerly the tainted 
breeze. This latter was in our favor, and both dogs 
suddenly joined company and worked up into it, with 
outstretched noses pointing to game that was evi- 
dently close ahead. 

The pointer crawled cautiously, like a tiger, his 
spotted belly sweeping the earth, and his tail, which 
had been lashing rapidly an instant before, gradually 
stiifening. He would open his mouth suddenly, 
drink in a quick, deep draught of air, and, closing 
the jaws again, hold it until obliged to take another 

(64) 



THE DOGS COME TO A POINT. 65 

respiration. He seemed as loath to let the scent of 
the chidven pass from his nostrils as a hungry news- 
boy is to quit the savory precincts of Delmonico's 
kitchen window. The setter's old bones appeared to 
renew their youth under the excitement, and he was 
as active as a retired war-horse suddenly plunged 
into battle. 

Both dogs came simultaneously to a point — tails 
curved up and rigid, each body motionless as if cut 
in marble and one forepaw lifted. Xo wonder so 
many men are wild with a 2:>assion for hunting. Kind 
Providence smiles upon the legitimate sport from 
conception to close, and gives us a iwse to start with 
fascinating to any lover of the beautiful, whether 
hunter or not. But one must not pause to moralize 
while dogs are on the point, or he ^vill have more 
philosophy than chickens. 

All the party had got safely to ground and were 
behind the dogs, with guns ready and eyes eagerly 
fi\stened on the thick grass which concealed its treas- 
ure as completely as if it had been a thousand miles 
below its roots, or on the opposite side of this mun- 
dane sphere in China. Xot a thing was visible within 
fifty yards of our noses save two dogs standing mo- 
tionless, with stiffened tails and eyes fixed on, and 
nozzles pointed toward, a spot in the sea of brown, 
withered grass, not ten feet away. 

The Professor took out his lens, Mr. Colon let 
down the hammers of his gun and cocked them again, 
to be sure all was right, while Sachem wore a puzzled 
expression as if undecided whether the attitude of 
the dogs indicated any thing particular or not. The 
4 



66 BUFFALO LAND. 

grass nodded and rustled in the light wind, but 
not a blade moved to indicate the presenc^ of any 
living thing beneath it, while the dogs remained as 
if petrified. 

The Professor said it was very remarkable, and 
wondered what had better be done next. Mr. Colon 
thought that the dogs were tired, and we might as 
well get into the wagon. Another suggested at ran- 
dom that we should set the dogs on, and Muggs, 
wdio had probably heard the expression somewhere, 
cried, " Hi, bo^^s, on bloods ! " At the words the 
dogs made a few quick steps forward, and on the 
instant the grass seemed alive with feathered forms, 
popping into air like bobs in shuttlecock. Such a 
fluttering and flying I have never seen since, when 
a boy, I ventured into a doA^e cote, and was knocked 
over by the rush of the alarmed inmates. From un- 
der our very feet, almost brushing . our faces, the 
beautiful pinnated grouse of the prairies left their 
cover, and us also. 

Every gun had gone off on the instant, and we 
doubt if one was raised an inch higher than it hap- 
pened to be when the covey started. The Professor 
afterward extracted some stray shot from the legs of 
his boots, and the setter, which was next to Muggs, gave 
a cry of pain for which there was evidently other 
cause than rheumatism, as was demonstrated by his 
retirement to the rear, from which he refused to 
budge until we all got into the wagon, and to which 
he invariably retreated whenever we got out. 

From the midst of the birds which were soaring 
away, one was seen to rise suddenly a few feet above 



THE SPORT CONTINUED. 69 

his comrades, and then fall straight as a plummet, 
and head first, to earth. It had caught some stray 
shot from the bombardment — Muggs claimed from 
his gun, but this statement the setter, could he have 
spoken, would certainly have disputed. 

Semi-Colon brought in the game, which proved to 
be a fine male, with whiskers and full plumage, which 
must have made sad havoc among the hearts of the 
hens, when the old fellow was on annual dress pa- 
rade in the spring. At that season of the year the 
cocks seek some knoll of the prairie, where the grass 
has been burnt or cut off, and strut up and down with 
ruflOied feathers, uttering meanwhile a booming sound, 
which can be heard in a clear morning for miles. 
The flabby pink skin that at other seasons hangs in 
loose folds on his neck is then distended like a bag- 
pipe, and he is a ver}^ different bird from the same 
individual in his Quaker gray and respectable sum- 
mer and fall habits. 

Ensconced again in the wagon, our party moved 
forward, the dogs, as before, examining the prairie. 
The professor was comparing the birds of the present 
and the oolitic age, when Muggs suddenly blasted his 
eyes and declared the beasts were at it again. And 
so they were, the setter making a good stand at some 
game in the grass, and the other dog, a short distance 
off, pointing his companion. During the remainder 
of the day we found many large flocks of birds, and 
fired away until two or three swelled noses testified 
how dirty our guns were. 

" Fast shooting," said the professor, as we were on 
our way home, "is as bad as that too slow. Al- 



70 BUFFALO LAND. 

though I am no sportsman from practice, I love and 
have studied the principles of it. In my father's day 
the rule was, when a bird rose, for a hunter to take 
out his snuff-box, take snuff, replace the box, aim, and 
fire. You may find the advice yet in some works. 
The shot then has distance in which to spread. A^^ith 
close shooting they are all together, and you might as 
well fire a bullet. When you have given the bird 
time, act quickly. The first sight is the best. 
Again, the first moment of flight, with most birds, is 
very irregular, as it is upward, instead of from 3'ou." 

Dobeen begged leave to inform our "honors" that 
in Ireland, after a bird rose, the rule was, instead of 
taking snuff, to take off the boots before firing. The 
professor thought that such a habit related to outrun- 
ning the gamekeeper, and was intended to procure 
distance for the poacher rather than the bird. 

Sachem stated that he had known a slow hunter 
once. He was a revolutionary veteran, used a revo- 
lutionary musket, and believed in revolutionary pow- 
der. He refused to do any thing difi*erent from what 
his fathers did, and abhorred double-barreled shot- 
guns and percussion-caps as inventions of the devil. 
It was constantly, "General Washington did this," 
and "Our army did that," and his old head shook 
sadly at the innovations Young America was making. 
His ghost, with the revolutionary musket on its 
shoulder, had since been known to chase hunters, 
with breech-loaders, who were caught on his favorite 
ground after dark. "Old 17 76" was great on wing- 
shooting, and could be seen at almost any time hob- 
bling over the moor, firing away at snipe and water- 



EXTERMINATING THE PRAIRIE-CHICKEN. 71 

fowl. He was one of those slow, deliberate cases, al- 
ways taking snuff after the bird rose. There would 
be a glitter of fluttering wings as the game shot into 
air. Down would come the long musket, out would 
come the snuff-box, and the old soldier would ao 
through the i)rcsent, make ready, take snuff, take 
aim, and fire, all as coolly as if on parade. The old 
musket often hung fire from five to ten seconds, and 
the premonitory flash could be seen as the shaky 
flint clattered down on the pan. The veteran always 
patiently covered the bird until the charge got out. 
The recoil was tremendous, and the old man often 
went down before the bird ; but such positions, he as- 
serted, were taken voluntarily, as ones of rest. Some 
said that the gun had been known to kick him again 
after he was down." 

Sachem's narration was hero cut short bv the do<i"s 
again pointing. This was followed by the usual bom- 
bardment, which over, the bag showed the mag- 
nificent aggregate of two chickens for the entire 
day's sport. 

The prairie-chicken is now extinct in many of the 
Western States where it was once well known. 
Usually, during the first few years of settlement, it 
increases rapidly, and is often a nuisance to pioneer 
farmers. Perhaps, when the latter first settle in a 
countr}^, a few covies may be seen ; under the favora- 
ble influences of wheat and corn-fields, the dozens in- 
crease to thousands and cover the land. But with 
denser settlement come more guns, and, Avhat is a far 
more destructive agent, trained dogs also. Under 
the first order of things, the farmer, with his musket, 



72 BUFFALO LAND. 

might kill enough for the home table. With double- 
barreled gun and keen-scented pointer, the sportsman 
and pot-hunter think nothing of fifty or sixty birds 
for a day's work. It seems almost impossible, under 
such a combination, for a covey to escape total anni- 
hilation. 

We may suppose a couple of fair shots hunting- 
over a dog in August, when the chickens lie close, 
and the year's broods are in their most delicate con- 
dition for the table. The pointer makes a stand be- 
fore a fine covey hidden in the thick grass before him. 
The ready guns ask no delay, and, at the word, he 
flushes the chickens immediately under his nose. 
Each hunter takes those Avhich rise before him, or on 
his side, and if four or less left cover at the first 
alarm, that number of gray-speckled forms the next 
moment are down in the grass, not to leave it again. 
If more rose, they are "marked," which means that 
their place of alighting is carefully noted, and, as the 
chicken has but a short flight, this task is easy. 
Meanwhile, the guns have been reloaded, the dog 
flushes others of the hiding birds, and so the sport 
goes on. The birds that get away are " marked 
down," and again found and flushed by the dog. 
Without this useful animal the chickens would mul- 
tiply, despite any number of hunters. I have often 
seen covies go down in the grass but a few hundred 
yards away, yet have tramped through the spot doz- 
ens of times without raising a single bird. In 
twenty years this delicious game will probably be as 
much a thing of the past as is the Dodo of the Isle 
de France. At the period of our visit they were 



GOPHER MOUNDS. 73 

already gathering into their fall flocks, which some- 
times number a hundred or more. In these they 
remain until St. Valentine recommends a separation. 
During the colder weather of winter they seek the 
protection of the timber, and may be seen of morn- 
ings on the trees and fences. They never roost there, 
however, but pass the night hidden in the adjacent 
grass. 

The prairie-chicken's admirers are numerous, other 
animals beside man being willing to dine on its plump 
breast. We had an illustration of this in our first 
day's shooting. Sometimes when we fired, the report 
would attract to our vicinity wandering hawks, and 
we found that either instinct or previous experience 
teaches these fierce hunters of the air that in the 
vicinity of their fellow-hunter, man, wounded birds 
may be found. One wounded chicken, which fell 
near us, was seized by a hawk immediately. 

As we passed one or two fields, indications of 
goj)hers appeared, their small mounds of earth cover- 
ing the ground. In some counties these animals 
formerly destroyed crops to such an extent that the 
celebrated "Gopher Act" was passed. This gave a 
bounty of two dollars for each scalp, and under it 
many farms yielded more to the acre than ever before 
or since. One of these animals which we secured re- 
sembled in size and shape the Norway rat, and, in the 
softness and color of its coat, was not unlike a mole. 
The oddest thing was its earth-pouches — two open 
sacks, one on either side of its head, and capable of 
containing each a tablespoonful or more. These the 
gopher employs, in his subterranean researches, for 



74 BUFFALO LAND. 

the same purpose that his enemy, man, does a wheel- 
barrow. Packing them with dirt, the little fellow 
trudges gayly to the surface, and there cleverly 
dumps his load. 

We reached town again, well pleased with our 
day's ride, and over our evening pipes discussed the 
results. Muggs thought our shot were too small. 
Sachem thought the birds were. 

Colon was delighted with the new State, but be- 
lieved that wing-shooting was not his forte. He 
would be more apt to hit a bird on the wing if he 
could only catch it roosting somewhere. 

Gripe, at the other end of the room, was piling Re- 
publican doctrines upon a bearded Democratic heathen 
from the Western border. 



CHAPTER V. 

A TRIAL nV JUDGE LYNCH HUNG FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT QUAIL SHOOTING 

HABITS OF THE BIRDS, AND MODE OF KILLING THEM A RING OF QUAILS — TUB 

EFFECTS OF A SEVERE WINTER THE SNOW GOOSE. 

A SHORT time after supper, Tenacious Gripe 
appeared with the mayor of the city, who 
wished to make the acquaintance of the Professor. 
The two august personages bowed to each other. It 
was the happiest moment in their respective lives, 
they declared. An invitation was extended us to 
dela}'' our departure another da}'' and try quail shoot- 
ing. Tlie citizens said the birds were unusually 
abundant, the previous winter having been mild 
and the summer long enough for two separate broods 
to be hatched, and the brush and river banks were 
swarming with them. As we were about to abandon 
the birds of the West and seek an acquaintance with 
its beasts, we decided, after a brief consultation, to 
accept the invitation and remain another day. 

Among the persons present in the crowded office 
of the hotel, was a man from the southwestern part 
of the state who had lately been interested in a trial 
before the celebrated Judge Lynch. Sachem inter- 
viewed him, and reports his statement of the occur- 
rence in the log book, as follows : 

(75) 



76 BUFFALO LAND. 

A stranger played me fur a fool, 

An' clean caflummixed me, 
An' sold me the wuss piece of mule 

I ever hope to see. 

But that wer fair ; I don't complain. 

That I got beat in trade ; 
I don't sour on a fellow's gain, 

When sich is honest made. 

But wust wer this, he stole the mule, 
An' I were bilked complete ; 

Such thieves, we hossmen makes a rule 
To lift 'em from their feet. 

We started arter that 'ere pup, 

An' took the judge along, 
For fear, with all our dander up, 

We might do somethin' wrong. 

We caught him under twenty miles, 

An tried him under trees; 
The judge he passed around the ''smiles," 

As sort o' jury fees. 

"Pris'ner," says judge, "now say your say, 
An' make it short an' sweet. 

An', while yer at it, kneel and pray. 
For Death yer can not cheat. 

No man shall hang, by this 'ere court, 

Exceptin' on the square ; 
There's time fur speech, if so it's short. 

But none to chew or swear." 




■=8 






QL'AIL-HUNTING ON THE KAW. 79 

An' then the thievin' rascal cursed, 

An' threw his life away, 
He said, "Just pony out your worst, 

Your best would be foul play." 

Then judge he frowned an awful frown, 

An' snapped this sentence short, 
"Jones, twitch the rope, an' write this down, 

Hung for contempt of court ! " 

Sharp 8 next morning saw us on the road leading 
east of town, the two dogs with us, and a young one 
additional, the property of a resident sportsman. 
Our last acquisition joined us on the run, and kept 
on it all day, going over the ground with the speed 
of a greyhound, his fine nose, however, giving him 
better success than his reckless pace would have 
indicated. 

Three miles from town, or half way between it 
and Tecumseh, our party left the wagon, with direc- 
tion for it to follow the road, while we scouted along 
on a parallel, following the river bank. 

The Kaw stretched eastward, broad and shallow, 
with numerous sand bars, and along its edges grew 
the scarlet sumach and some stunted bushes, and 
between these and the corn a high, coarse bottom 
grass, with intervals at every hundred yards or so 
apart of a shorter variety, like that on a poor prairie. 
Among the bushes, there was no grass whatever, 
and yet the birds seemed indifferently to frequent 
one spot equally with another. 

In less than ten minutes after leaving the wagon, 
all the dogs were pointing on a barren looking spot, 



80 BUFFALO LAXD. 

thinly sprinkled with scrubby bushes not larger than 
jimson-weecls. They were several yards apart, so 
that each animal was clearly acting on his own 
responsibility. 

If it puzzled us the day before to discover any 
signs of game under their noses, it certainly did so 
now. There was apparently no place of concealment 
for any object larger than a field-mouse. The bushes 
were wide apart, and the soil between w^as a loose 
sand. Around the roots of the scrubs, it is true, a 
few thin, wir}' spears of grass struggled into existence, 
but these covered a space not larger than a man's 
hand, and it seemed preposterous to imagine that 
they could be capable of affording cover. That three 
dogs were pointing straight at three bushes was 
apparent, but we could see nothing in or about the 
latter calling for such attention. 

Shamus, who had accompanied us, washed to know 
if the twigs were w^itch hazels, because, if so, three 
invisible old beldames might be taking a nap under 
them, after a midnight ride. "But, then," said Do- 
been, " the dog's hairs do n't stand on end as they 
always do in Ireland when they see ghosts and 
witches." We believe that our worthy cook was 
really disappointed in not discovering any stray 
broomsticks lying around. These, he afterward in- 
formed us, could not be made invisible, though their 
owners should take on airy shapes unrecognizable by 
mortal eyes. 

Muggs had suggested urging the dogs in, but the 
party, wiser from yesterday's experience, desired a 
ground shot, if it could be secured. The Professor 



A WORSTED XIMROD. 81 

adjusted his lens, and decided to make a personal 
inspection around the roots of the bush immediately 
in front of him. 

Carefully the sage bent over the suspicious spot, 
and almost fell backward as, with a whiz and a dart, 
half a dozen quails flew out, brushing his very nose. 
Instantly every bush sent forth its fugitives. A flash 
of feathered balls, and they were all gone. Such 
whizzing and whirring! it M'as as if those scraggy 
bushes were mitrailleuses^ in quick succession dis- 
charging their loads. 

Only one gun had gone off, but that so loudly that 
our ears rung for several seconds. Mr. Colon had 
accidentally rammed at least two, perhaps half a 
dozen, loads into one barrel, and the gun discharged 
with an aim of its own, the butt very low down. 
Two birds fell dead. But alas for our iS'imrod! 
Colon stood with one hand on his stomach undecided 
whether that organ remained or not. On this point, 
however, he was fully re-assured at the supper-table 
that night, and in all our after experience, we never 
knew that gun to have the least opportunity for 
going off, except when at its owner's shoulder, and he 
perfectly ready for it. 

The two birds were now submitted to the party for 
inspection. They were fine specimens of the Ameri- 
can quail, more properly called by those versed in 
quailology, the Bob White. This bird is very plen- 
tiful throughout Kansas, and just before the shoot- 
ing season commences, in September, will even fre- 
quent the gardens and alight on the houses of To- 
peka. They "lay close" before a dog, take flight 



82 BUFFALO LAND. 

into air with a quick, whirring dart, and their shoot- 
ing deservedly ranks high. They are very rapid in 
their movements upon the ground, often running- 
fifty or seventy-five yards before hiding. When this 
takes place, so closely do they huddle that it is sel- 
dom more than the upper bird that can be seen. 
" Green hunters " sometimes pause, trying to discover 
the rest of the covey before firing, and experience 
a great and sudden disgust when the single bird 
wdiich they have disdained suddenly develops into a 
dozen flying ones. 

We had an eventful days' sport, expending more 
ammunition than when among the chickens, and with 
more satisfactory results, as we brought in over two 
dozen birds. More than half of these w^ere taken by 
Sachem at one lucky discharge. He saw a covey in 
the grass, huddled together as they generally are 
when not running. At these times they form a circle 
about as large in diameter as the hoop of a nail keg, 
with tails to the center and heads toward the outside. 
Fifteen quails would thus be a circle of fifteen heads, 
and a pail, could it be dropped over the covey, 
would cover them all. Not only is this an economy 
of warmth, there being no outsiders half of w^hose 
bodies must get chilled, but there is no blind side on 
which they can be approached, every portion of the 
circle having its full quota of eyes. Let skunk or 
fox, or other roamer through the grass, creep ever so 
stealthily, he will be seen and avoided by flight. 
Sachem aiming at the midst of such a ring, broke it 
up as effectually as Boutwell's discharge of bullion 
did that on Wall Street. 



WE SEE SNOW-GEESE. 83 

"VVe have since found the frozen bodies of whole 
covies, which had gone to roost in a circle and been 
buried under such a heavy fall of snow that the 
birds could not force their way upward. Their habit 
is to remain in imprisonment, apparently waiting for 
the snow to melt before even making an effort for 
deliverance. Oftentimes it is then too late, a crust 
having formed above. A severe winter will some- 
times completely exterminate the birds in certain lo- 
calities. 

During this first day of quail-shooting, we also saw 
for the first time flocks of the snow-goose. The Pro- 
fessor counted fifty birds on one sand bar. This 
variety, in its flight across the continent, apparently 
passes through but a narrow belt of country, being- 
found, to the best of my knowledge, in but few of the 
states outside of Kansas. 

Our return to the hotel was without accident, and 
our supper such as hungry hunters might well enjoy. 
After it was disposed of, we gathered around the 
ample stove in the hotel office, and lived over again 
the events of the day. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OFF FOR BUFFALO LAND THE NAVIGATION OF THE KAW — FORT RILEY THE CEN- 
TER-POST OF THE UNITED STATES OUR PURCHASE OF HORSES "LO" AS A 

SAVAGE AND AS A CITIZEN — GRIPE UNFOLDS THE INDIAN QUESTION A BALLAD 

BY SACHEM, PRESENTING ANOTHER VIEW. 

"T^TEXT morning we said good-by to hospitable To- 
J^ 1 peka, and took up our westward way over the 
Pacific Raih'oad. An ever-repeated succession of 
valley and prairie stretched awa}'' on either hand. 
To the left the Kaw came down with far swifter cur- 
rent than it has in its course below, from its far-awjiy 
source in Colorado. It might properly be called one 
of the eaves or water-spouts of the great Rocky 
Mountain water-shed. With a pitch of over five 
feet to the mile, its pace is here necessarily a rapid 
one, and when at freshet height the stream is like a 
mill-race for foam and fury. 

At the junction of the Big Blue we found the old 
yet pretty town of Manhattan. To this point, in 
early times, water transit was once attempted. A 
boat of exceedingly light draught, one of those built 
to run on a heavy dew, being procured, freight was 
advertised for, and the navigation of the Kaw com- 
menced. The one hundred miles or more to Man- 
hattan was accomplished principally by means of the 
capstan, the boat being "warped" over the number- 
less shallows. This proved easier, of course — a trifle 

m 



A FUTUEE RALLY-POINT. 85 

easier — than if she had made the trip on macadamized 
roads. If her stern had a comfortable depth of 
water it was seldom indeed, except when her bow 
was in the air in the process of pulling the boat over 
a sand bar. The scared catfish were obliged to re- 
treat up stream, or hug close under the banks, to 
avoid obstructing navigation, and it is even hinted 
that more than one patriarch of the finny tribe had to 
be pried out of the way to make room for his new 
rival to pass. 

Once at IVIanhattan, the steamboat line was sus- 
pended for the season, its captain and crew deciding 
they would rather walk back to the Missouri River 
than drag the vessel there. Soon afterward, the 
steamer was burned at her landing, and the Kaw has 
remained closed to commerce ever since. 

About the same time, an enterprising Yankee ad- 
vocated in the papers the straightening of the river, 
and proA'iding it with a series of locks, making it a 
canal. As he had no money of his own with which 
to develop his ideas into results, and could command 
nobody's else for that purpose, the project failed in 
its very inception. 

Fort lliley, four miles below Junction City, is 
claimed as the geographical center of the United 
States, the exact spot being marked by a post. 
What a rallying point that stick of wood will be for 
future generations ! When the corner-stone of the 
National Capitol shall there be laid, the orator of the 
day can mount that post and exclaim, with eloquent 
significance, elsewhere impossible, "No north, no 
south, no east, no west!" and enthusiastic multi- 
5 



86 BUFFALO LAND. 

tildes, there gathered from the four quarters of the 
continent, will hail the words as the key-note of the 
republic. 

That spot of ground and that post are A^aluable. 
I hope a national subscription will be started to buy it. 
It is the only place on our continent which can ever 
be entirely free from local jealousies. There would 
be no possible argument for ever removing the capital. 
The Kaw could be converted into a magnificent canal, 
winding among picturesque hills past the base of the 
Capitol ; and then, in case of war, should any hostile 
fleet ever ascend the rapid Missouri, it would be but 
necessary for.our legislators to grasp the canal locks, 
and let the water out, to insure their perfect safety. 
Imagine the humiliation of a foreign naval hero arriv- 
ing with his iron-clads opposite a muddy ditch, and 
finding it the only means of access to our capital ! 

A painful rumor has of late obtained circulation that 
a band of St. Louis ku-klux, yclept capital movers, 
intend stealing the pole and obliterating the hole. 
Let us hope, however, that it is without foundation. 

Before leaving Topeka, the party had purchased 
horses for the trip, and consigned the precious load 
to a car, sending a note to General Anderson, super- 
intendent, asking that they might be promptly and 
carefully forw^arded to Hays City, our present ob- 
jective point upon the plains. 

The professor, bringing previous experience into 
requisition, selected a stout mustang — probably as 
tractable as those brutes ever become. He was war- 
ranted by the seller never to tire, and he never did, 
keeping the philosopher constantly on the alert to 



IRON BILLY AFTER BUFFALO. 87 

save neck and knees. It is the simple truth that, 
in all our acquaintance with him, that mustang never 
appeared in the least fatigued. After backing and 
shjang all day, he would spend the night in kicking 
and stealing from the other horses. 

Mr. Colon, by rare good fortune, obtained a beau- 
tiful animal, formerly known in Leavenworth as Iron 
Billy — a dark bay, with head and hair fine as a 
pointer's, limbs cut sharp, and joints of elastic. 
After carrying ]\[r. C. bravely for months, never 
tripping or failing, he was sold on our return to the 
then Secretary of State, who still owns him. More 
than once did Billy make his rider's arm ache from 
pulling at the curb, when the other horses were all 
knocked up by the rough day's riding. It was in- 
teresting to see him in pursuit of buffalo. lie would 
often smell them when they were hidden in ravines, 
and we wholly unaware of their vicinity. Head and 
ears were erect in an instant, and, with nostrils ex- 
panded, forward he went, keeping eagerly in front at 
a peculiar prancing step which we called tiptoeing. 
Once in sight of the game, and the rider became a 
person of quite secondary importance. Billy said, as 
plainly as a horse could say any thing, "/ am going 
to manage this thing ; you stick on." And manage 
it he did. Xot many moments, at the most, before 
he was at the quarters of the fleeing monsters, and 
nipping them mischievously with his teeth. I could 
always imagine him giving a downright horse-laugh, 
his big bright eyes sparkled so when the frightened 
bison, at the touch, gave a switch of his tail and a 
swerve of alarm, and plunged more wildly forward. 



88 



BUFFALO LAND. 



If the rider wished to shoot, he coiikl do so; if not, 
content himself, as Mr. Colon usually did, with cling- 
ing to the saddle, and uttering numberless expostu- 
kitory but fruitless " whoa's." 

Once on our trip Billy was loaned for the day to a 
gentleman who wished to examine a prospective coal 
mine. When barely out of sight of camp, Billy dis- 
covered a herd of buffalo, and, despite the vehement 
remonstrances of his rider, straightway charged it. 
The mine-seeker was no hunter, but a wise and thor- 
oughly timid devotee of science in search of coal 
measures. A few moments, and the poor, frightened 
gentleman found himself in the midst of a surging 
mass of buffiilo, his knees brushing their hairy sides, 
and their black horns glittering close around him, 
like an array of serried spears. He drew his knees 
into the saddle, and there, clinging like a monkey, 
lost his hat, his map of the mine, and his spectacles. 
He returned Billy as soon as he could get him back 
to camp, with, expressions of gratitude that he had 
been allowed to escape with life, and never mani- 
fested the least desire to mount him again. 

Sachem's purchase was a horse which had run 
unaccountably to legs. He was sixteen hands high, 
a trifle knock-kneed, and with a way of flinging the 
limbs out when put to his speed which, though it 
seemed awkward enough, yet got over the ground 
remarkably well. With the shambling gait of a 
camel, he had also the good qualities of one, and did 
his owner honest service. 

Muggs bought a mule, partly because advised to 
do so by a plainsman, and partly because the rest of 



A SOLID BEAST. 89 

US took horses. With true British obstinacy he paid 
no attention to our expostulations, and the creature 
he obtained was as obstinate as himself. Poor 
Muggs ! A mule may be good property in the hands 
of a plainsman, but was never intended to carry a 
Briton. 

Semi-Colon had the auction purchase, and Dobeen 
selected a Mexican donkey, one of the touohest little 
animals that ever pulled a bit. lie could excel a 
trained mule in the feat of dislodging his rider, and 
had a remarkable penchant for running over persons 
who by chance might be looking the other way. It 
seemed to be his constant study to take unexpected 
positions, or, as Sachem phrased it, to "strike an 
attitude." 

My mount was a stout-built old mare, recommended 
to me as a solid beast, on the strength of which, and 
wishing to avoid experiments, I made purchase at 
once. I found her solid indeed. 'NMien on the gallop 
her feet came down witli a shock which made my 
head vibrate, as if I had accidentally taken two steps 
instead of one, in descending a staircase. 

Could the good people of Topeka have gotten us 
to ride out of their town upon our several animals, 
it would have given them a fair idea of a mardl gras 
cavalcade in Xew Orleans. 

And so, our camp equipage and live stock follow- 
ing by freight, the express rolled us forward toward 
the great plains. So far along our route we had seen 
but few Indians, and those civilized specimens, such 
as straggle occasionally through the streets of Topeka. 
The Indian reservations in Kansas are at some dis- 



90 BUFFALO LAND. 

tance apart, and their inhabitants frequently ex- 
chano'e visits. The few whom we had seen consisted 
of Osages, Kaws, Pottawatomies, and Sioux, all 
equally dirty, but the last affecting clothes more than 
the others, and eschewing paint. The members of 
this tribe, generally speaking, have good farms and 
are worth a handsome average per head. At the 
time of our visit they were expecting a half million 
dollars or so from Washington, and were soon to be- 
come American citizens. One privilege of this cit- 
izenship struck us as very peculiar. By the State 
law, as long as an Indian is simply an Indian, he 
can buy no whisky, and is thus cruelly debarred 
from the privilege of getting drunk, but once a voter, 
he can luxuriate in corn-juice and the calaboose, as 
well as his white brother. What a travesty upon 
American civilization and politics ! 

Muggs was prejudiced against the Osages, having 
been induced by one of them to invest in a bow and 
arrows, "for the Hinglish Museum, you know." On 
pulling for a trial shot, one end of the bow went 
farther than the arrow, and the cord, warranted to 
be buffalo sinew, proved to be an oiled string. 

Sachem declared that he had found Muggs return- 
ing the wreck to the Indian with the folloAving speech : 
" 0-sage, little was your wisdom to court thus the 
wrath of a Briton. Take with the two pieces this 
piece of my mind. That your noble form may be re- 
moved soon to the 'appy 'unting ground, where bow 
trades are not allowed, is the prayer of your patron, 
Muggs." 

Mr. Colon asked Tenacious Gripe to explain the 





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DIVERSE APPLICATIOX OF SIMILAR PRINCIPLES. 03 

condition of .the Xative Americans in Kansas. The 
orator kindly consented and thereupon discoursed as 
follows : 

" The Indians of Kansas are divided into the wild 
and the tame. Both alike cover their nakedness 
with bright handkerchiefs, old shirts, military coats, 
and many-hued ribbons. The principal difference 
in point of dress is in the method of procuring it. 
Among those tribes which are at peace with the 
government, the white man robs the Indian ; among 
the wild tribes the conditions are reversed — the 
Indian robs the white man. In the one case the 
contractors and agents carry off their half million 
dollars or thereabouts ; in the other the savage bears 
away a quantity of old clothes and fresh scalps. As 
he finds it difficult to procure sufficient of the white 
man's justice to satisfy the cravings of his nature, 
he feeds it with what he can and whenever he can 
of revenge. Wise men toll us, gentlemen, that re- 
venge is sweet and justice a dry morsel. All Indians 
beg when they get an opportunity. The tame ones, 
if they find it fruitless, divert themselves b}^ selling 
worthless pieces of wood with strings attached, as 
bows. The wild ones, in a like predicament, relieve 
their tedium by whacking away at our ribs with 
bows that amount to something. The principles 
actuating both classes are alike. It is simply the 
application which causes difficulty — in the one case 
an appeal with bow and arrows to our pockets, in 
the other to our bodies. 

"All our wars with these people, gentlemen, are a 
result of their political economy. They believe that 



94 BUFFALO LAND, 

tlie Great Spirit provided buffalo and^ other game 
for his red chiklren. When the white man drives 
these away, they understand that he takes their pLace 
as a means of sustenance, and as they have lived 
upon the one, so they intend to do upon the other. 
If the buffalo attempts to evade his duty in the prem- 
ises, they kill him and take his meat; if the white 
man, the}" kill him and take his hair." 

Sachem produced a roll of dirty brown paper and 
said that he had .studied the Indian question and 
found two sides to it. One he could give us in a nut- 
shell, believing that the meat of the nut had often 
excited the spirit of war. 

Where waters sung above the sand, 

And torrent forced its way, 
Stretched out, disgusted with the land, 

A bearded miner lay, 
Prepared to strike, with willing hand, 

Whatever lead would pay. 

Echo of hoof on beaten ground 

Kung on the desert air, 
Ringing a tune of gladsome sound 

To miner, watching there; 
A paying lead, at last, he'd found — 

The vein a " a man of hair." 

An instant more, and at the ford 

A savage chief appeared; 
The miner saw his goodly hoard, 

And tore his own good beard. 
(You '11 always find an ox is gored 

When sheep are to be sheared.) 



sachem's ballad. 97 

And these the words the miner said : 
"You've spoilt my drink, old follow; 

You've riled the brook, my brother red, 
And, by your cheek so yellow. 

To-night above your sandy bed 
The prairie gale shall bellow. 

"Xo relatives of mine are dead, 

At least by Injun eunnin', 
But many other hearts have bled, 

And many eyes are runnin'; 
For blood and tears alike are shed, 

When you go out a gunniu'. 

"Some slumbrin' peaceful, first they knew, 

They heard your horrid din — 
Women as well as men you slow. 

You bloody son of sin ; 
I mourn 'em all, revenge 'em too, 

Through Adam they were kin." 

This having said, the minor smart, 

Drew bead upon the red man : 
They're fond of beads — it touched his heart, 

And Lo, behold, a dead man ; 
Upon Life's stage he'd played his part, 

A gory sort of head man ! 

Two packs of goods lay on the ground; 

Quoth miner, " Lawful spoil ! 
My lucky star at last has found 

As good as gold and oil ; 
I kinder felt that fate Avas bound 

To bless my honest toil. 



98 BUFFALO LAND. 

" Such heathen have no lawful heirs- 
I '11 be the Probate Judge, 

For though they kinder go in pairs, 
Their love is all a fudge ; 

I'll 'ministrateon what he wears, 
And leave his squaw my grudge." 



CHAPTER VII. 

gripe's views of INDIAN CHARACTEIl — THE DELAWARES' THE ISHMAELITES OP 

THE PLAINS THE TERRITORY OF THE "LONG HORNS " TEXAX3 AND THEIR 

CHARACTERISTICS — MUSHROOM ROCK A VALUABLE DISCOVERY FOOTPRINTS IN 

THE ROCK THE PRIMEVAL PACL AND VIRGINIA. 

WE noticed many fine rivers rolling from the 
northward into the Kaw, which stream we 
found was known by that name only after receiving 
the Republican, at Junction City. Above that point, 
under the name of the Smoky Hill, it stretches far 
out across the plains, and into the eastern portion 
of Colorado. Along its desolate banks we afterward 
saw the sun rise and set upon many a weary and 
many a gorgeous day. 

xill the large tributaries of the Kansas river, con- 
sisting of the Big Blue, Republican, Solomon, and 
Saline, came in on our right. Upon our left, toward 
the South, only small creeks joined waters with the 
Kaw, the pitch of the great "divides" there being 
towards the Arkansas and its feeders, the' Cotton- 
wood and Neosho. 

We had now fiiirly entered on the great Smoky 
Hill trail. Here Fremont marked out his j^ath to- 
wards the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and on 
many of the high huttes ^^ e discovered the pillars of 

(99) 



100 BUFFALO LAND. 

stone whicli he had set up as guides for emigrant 
trains, looking wonderfully like sentinels standing 
ffuard over the vallevs beneath. Indeed we did at 
first take them for solitary herders, watching their 
cattle in some choice pasture out of sight. 

Most of our party had expected to find Indians 
in promiscuous abundance over the entire State, 
and we were therefore surprised to see the country, 
after passing St. Mary's Mission, entirely free of 
them. Muggs asked Gripe if the American Indian 
was hostile to all nationalities alike, or simply to 
those who robbed him of his hunting-grounds. The 
orator replied as follows: 

" Sir, the aborigine of the western plains cares 
not what color or flavor the fruit possesses which 
hano-s from his roof tree. The cue of the Chinaman 
is equally as acceptable as hairs from the mane of 
the Eno-lish lion. A red lock is as welcome as a 
black one, and disputes as to ownership usually 
result in a dead-lock. His abhorrence is a wig, which 
he considers a contrivance of the devil to cheat honest 
Indian industry. I would advise geologists on the 
plains to carry, along with their picks for breaking- 
stones, a bottle of patent hair restorative. It is 
handy to have in one's pocket when his scalp is far 
on its way towards some Cheyenne war-pole. The 
scalping process, gentlemen, is the way in which 
savages levy and collect their poll-tax. An}^ person 
in search of romantic wigwams can have his wig- 
warmed very thoroughly on the Arkansas or Texas 
borders. On the plains along the western border of 
Kansas, however, geologists can find a rich and com- 



THE INDIAN ISHMAEL. 101 

paratively safe field for exploration. It is doubtful 
if the savages ever wander there again. 

"Of the Indian warrior on the j^hiins we may well 
say, I'eqidescat hi pace, and may his pace be rapid 
towards either civilization or the happy hunting 
ground. History shows that his reaching the first 
has generally given him quick transit to the second. 
The white man's country has proved a spirit-land to 
Lo, whose noble soul seems to sink when the scalp- 
ino'-knife Q'athers anv other rust than that of blood, 
and w^hose prophetic spirit takes flight at the pros- 
pect of exchanging boiled puppies and dirt for the 
white brother's pork and beans. Very often, how- 
ever, it must be said, Lo's soul is gathered to his 
fathers by reason of its tabernacle being smitten too 
sorely by corn lightning." 

As Gripe paused, the Professor took up the sub- 
ject in a somewhat diff'orent strain : 

"We have here in this State," remarked he, "a 
tribe which may well be called the Indian Ishmael. 
Its hand is and ever has been, since history took 
record of it, against its brethren, and its brethren's 
against it. I refer to the pitiful remnant of the once 
great Delawares. From the shores of the Atlantic 
they have steadily retreated before civilization, 
marking their path Avestward by constant conflicts 
with other races of red men. The nation in its 
eastern forests once numbered thousands of warriors. 
N^ow, three hundred miserable survivors are hasten- 
ing to extinction by way of their Kansas reservation. 

" A number of their best warriors have been em- 
ployed as scouts by the government, when administer- 



102 BUFFALO LAND. 

ing well merited chastisement to other murdering 
bands. The Delawares, I have often thought, are 
like blood-hounds on the track of the savages of the 
plains. ■ They take fierce delight in scanning the 
ground for trails and the lines of the streams for 
camps. There is something strangely unnatural in 
the wild eyes of these Ishmaelites, as they lead the 
destroyers against their race, and assist in blotting 
it from the face of the continent. Themselves so 
nearly joined to the nations known onl}^ in history, it 
is like a plague-stricken man pressing eagerly for- 
ward to carry the curse, before he dies, to the re- 
mainder of his people." 

The valleys of the Saline, Solomon, and Smoky 
Hill, as we passed them in rapid succession, seemed 
very rich and were already thickly dotted with houses. 
This is one of the best cattle regions of the state, 
and vast herds of the long-horned Texan breed cov- 
ered the prairies. We were informed that they often 
graze out throughout the entire winter. As early in 
the spring as the grass starts sufficiently along the 
trail from Texas to Kansas, the stock dealers of the 
former State commence moving their immense herds 
over it. The cattle are driven slowly forward, feed- 
ing as they come, and reach the vicinity of the Kansas 
railroads when the grass is in good condition for their 
summer fattening. As many as five hundred thou- 
sand head of these long horns have been brought into 
the State in a single season. Some are sold on arrival 
and others kept until fall, when the choicest beeves 
are shipped East for packing purposes, or into Illinois 
for corn feeding. The latter is the case when they 



THE GENUS TEXAN. 103 

are destined eventually for consumption in Eastern 
markets, grass-fed beef lacking the solid fatness of 
the corn-fed, and suffering more by long trans- 
portation. 

This very important trade in cattle, when fully de- 
veloped, will probably be about equally divided be- 
tween southern and central Kansas, each of which 
possesses its peculiar advantages for the business. 
While the valley of the Arkansas has longer grass, 
and more of it, the dealers in the Kaw region claim 
that their "feed" is the most nutritious. My own 
opinion, carefully formed, is that both sections are 
about equally good, and that the whole of western 
Kansas, with Colorado, will yet become the greatest 
stock-raising region of the world. The climate is pecu- 
liarly favorable. Two seasons out of three, on an 
average, cattle and sheep can graze during the winter, 
without any other cover than that of the ravines and 
the timber along the creeks. 

The herders who manage these large bodies of cat- 
tle are a distinctive and peculiar class. We saw 
numbers of them scurrying along over the country 
on their wild, lean mustangs, in appearance a species 
of centaur, half horse, half man, with immense rat- 
tling spurs, tanned skin, and dare-devil, almost fero- 
cious faces. After an extensive acquaintance with 
the genus Texan, and with all due allowance for the 
better portion of it, I must say, as my deliberate 
judgment, that it embraces a larger number of mur- 
derers and desperadoes than can be found elsewhere 
in any civilized nation. A majority of these herders 
would think no more of snuffing out a life than of 



104 BUFFALO LAND. 

snuffing out a candle. Texas, in her rude solitude, 
formerly stretched protecting arms to the evil doers 
from other states, and to her these classes flocked. 
She offered them not a city but a whole empire of 
refuge. 

Just be^^ond Brookville, two hundred miles from 
the eastern border of Kansas, our road commenced 
ascending the Harker Bluifs, a series of sandstone 
ridges bordering on the plains. 

On our left. Mushroom Rock w^as pointed out to 
us, a huge table of stone poised on a solitary pillar, 
and strangely resembling the plant from wdiich it 
is named. As the professor informed us, we were 
now on the eastern shore of a once vast inland ocean, 
the bed of which now formed the plains. Sachem 
thought the rock might be a petrified toad-stool, on 
a scale with the gigantic toads which hopped around 
in the mud of that age of monsters. The professor 
thought it was fashioned by the waters, in their 
eddyings and w\ashings. 

Subsequent examinations showed this entire region 
to be one of remarkable interest to the geologist. 
A few miles east of Mushroom Rock, near Bavaria, 
as we learned from the conductor, human foot-prints 
had been discovered in the sandstone. The pro- 
fessor, who had long ascribed to man an earlier ex- 
istence upon earth than that given him by geology, 
was greatly excited, and at his earnest request, wdien 
the down train was met, we returned upon it to Ba- 
varia. 

That place we found to consist of two buildings, 
each serving the double purpose of house and store, 




On Alum Creek, near Kansas Pacific R R.— From a Photograph. 




iMJiAN K.X.K, on Si,ioky Hill Uivcr, Kansas— From a Photograph. 



MUMMIES MADE MODERN. 107 

the track running between them. Two sandstone 
blocks, each weighing several hundred pounds, lay 
in front of one of the stores, and there, sure enough, 
impressed clearly and deeply upon their surface were 
the tracks of human feet. They had been discovered 
by a Mr. J. B. Hamilton on the adjacent bluffs. 

There was something weird and startling in this 
voice from those long-forgotten ages — ages no less 
remote than when the ridge we wore standing upon 
was a portion of a lake shore. The man who trod 
those sands, the professor informed us, perished from 
the face of the earth countless ages before the oldest 
mummy was laid away in the caves of Egypt ; and 
yet people looked at the shriveled Egyptian, and 
thought that they were holding converse with one who 
lived close upon the time of the oldest inhabitant. 
They wrested secrets from his tomb, and called them 
very ancient. And now this dweller beside the great 
lakes had lifted his feet out of the sand to kick the 
mummy from his pedestal of honor in the museum, as 
but a being of yesterday, in comparison with himself. 

This discovery was soon afterward extensively 
noticed in the newspapers, and the specimens are 
now in the collection made by our party at Topcka. 
It is but fair to say that a difference of opinion exists 
in regard to these imprints. Many scientific men, 
among whom is Professor Cope, affirm that they 
must be the work of Indians long ago, as the age 
of the rock puts it beyond the era of man, while 
others attribute them to some lower order of animal, 
with a foot resembling the human one. For my own 
part, after careful examination, I accept our profes- 



108 BUFFALO LAND. 

sor's theory, that the imprints are those of human 
feet. Tlie surface of the stone has been decided by 
experts to be bent down, not chiseled out. Science 
not long ago ridiculed- the primitive man, which it 
now accepts. It is not strange, therefore, that 
science should protest against its oldest inhabitant 
stepping out from ages in which it had hitherto for- 
bidden him existence. 

We also found on the rocks fine impressions of 
leaves, resembling those of the magnolia, and gathered 
a bushel of petrified walnuts and butternuts. There 
were no other indications whatever of trees, the 
whole country, as far as we could see, being a deso- 
late prairie. 

"Gentlemen," &aid the professor, "as surely as you 
stand on the shore of a great lake, which passed 
away in comparatively modern times, science stands 
on the brink of important revelations. We have 
here the evidence of the rocks that man existed on 
this earth when the vast level upon which you are 
about to enter was co.vered by its mass of water. 
The waves lapped against the Rocky Mountains on 
the west, and against the ridges on which you are 
standing, upon the east. From previous explorations, 
I can assure you that the buffalo now feed over a sur- 
face strewn with the remains of those monsters 
which inhabited the waters of the primitive world, 
and the grasses suck nutriment from the shells of 
centuries. Geology has held that man did not exist 
during the time of the great lakes. I assert that he 
did, gentlemen, and now an inhabitant of that period 
steps forward to confirm my position. This man 



PRIMITIVE LOVERS. 109 

walked barefooted, and yet the contour of one of 
the feet, so different in shape from that of any wild 
peo2)le's of the i:>resent day, shows that it had been 
confined by some stiff material, like our leather shoes. 
The appearance of the big toe is especially confirma- 
tory of this. I would call your attention, gentlemen, 
to the block which contains companion impressions 
of the right and left foot. The latter is deep, and 
well defined, every toe being separate and perfect. 
The former is shallow, and spread out, with bulged- 
up ridges of stone between each toe. These are ex- 
actly the impressions your own feet would make, on 
such a shore to-day, were the sand under the riglit 
one to be of such a vieldino- nature that in moving- 
you withdrew it quickly, and rested more heavily on 
the other, the material under which was firmer. 
Your right track would spread, the mud bulging up 
between the toes, and forcing them out of position, 
and the material nearly regaining its level, with a 
misshapen impression upon its surface. 

"You will also perceive that the sand was already 
hardening into rock when our ancient. friends walked 
over it. I use the plural because, if I may venture 
an opinion from this hasty examination, I should say 
the two tracks were those of a female, the single one 
that of a man. From the position of the blocks they 
were probably walking near each other at that pre- 
cise time when the new rock was soft enough to re- 
ceive an impression and hard enough to retain it. 
You will perceive that the surface of the stone is bent 
down into the cavities, as that of a loaf of half-raised 
bread would be should you press your hand into it." 



110 BUFFALO LAND. 

Sachem thought that the couple might have been 
an ancient Paul and Virginia telling their love on the 
shores of the old-time lake. 

The Professor continued: "You notice close beside 
the two imprints an oval, rather deep hole in the 
rock, precisely like that a boy often makes by whirl- 
ing on one heel in the sand." 

Sachem again interrupted : " Perhaps the maiden 
went through the fascinating evolution of revolving 
her body while her mind revolved the 'yes ' or ' no ' 
to her swain's question. It might be a refined way 
of telling her lover that she was well 'heeled,' and 
asking if he was." 

The Professor very gravely replied : " In those 
days the world had not run to slang. If one of No- 
ah's children had dared to address him with the 
modern salutation of ' governor,' the venerable patri- 
arch would have flung his child overboard from the 
ark. Taking your view of the case, Mr. Sachem, the 
whirl in the sand, which gave the lover his answer, 
is telling us to-day that same old story. And the 
coquette of that remote period caused the tell-tale 
walk upon the sand, which has proved the greatest 
geological discovery of modern times. I believe that 
it will be followed up and sustained by others equally 
as important, all tending to date man's birth thou- 
sands of years anterior to the time geology has hith- 
erto assigned him an existence upon earth." 

We spent many hours of the night in getting the 
rocks to the depot for shipment to Topeka, the few 
inhabitants of Bavaria assisting us. Soon after a 



GEOLOGICAL CHANGES. Ill 

u'estward train came along, and we were again in 
motion toward the home of the buffalo. 

Before we slept the Professor gave us the following 
information: The vast plateau lying east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and which we were now approaching, was 
once covered by a series of great fresh-water lakes. 
At an early period these must have been connected 
with the sea, their waters then being quite salty, 
as is abundantly demonstrated by the remains of 
marine shells. During the time of the continental 
elevation these lakes were raised above the sea level, 
and their size very much diminished. Over the new 
land thus created, and surrounding these beautiful 
sheets of water, spread a vegetation at once so beau- 
tiful and so rich in growth that earth has now abso- 
lutely nothing with which to compare it. Amid these 
lovely pastures roved larje herds of elephants, with 
the uiastodon, rhinoceros, horse, and elk, while the 
streams and lakes abounded with fish. But the 
drainage toward the distant ocean continued, the 
water area diminished, the hot winds of the dry land 
drank up what remained of the lakes, and, in process 
of time, lo ! the great grass-covered plains that we 
wander over delightedly to-day. AVhat folly to sup- 
pose that such a land, so peculiarly fitted for man's 
enjoyment, should remain, through a long period of 
time, tenanted only by brutes, and be given up to the 
human race only after its delightful characteristics 
had been entirely removed. 



CHAPTER YIII. 



THE "great AMERICAN DESERT " ITS FOSSIL WEALTH — AN ILLUSION DISPELLED 

FIRES ACCORDING TO NOVELS AND ACCORDING TO FACT SENSATIONAL HEROES 

AND HEROINES — PRAIRIE DOGS AND THEIR HABITS — HAWK AND DOG AND HAWK 
AND CAT. 



NEXT morning, as the first gray darts of dawn 
fell against our windows, Mr. Colon lifted up a 
sleepy head and gazed out. Then came that quick 
jel'k into an upright position which one assumes when 
startled suddenly from a drowsy state to one of in- 
tense interest. The motion caused a similar one on 
the part of each of us, as if a sort of jumping- 
jack set of string nerves ran up our backs, and a man 
under the cars had pulled them all simultaneously. 

We were on the great earth-ocean ; upon either 
side, until striking against the shores of the horizon, 
the billows of buffalo-grass rolled away. It seemed 
as if the Mighty Ruler had looked upon these waters 
when the world was young, and said to them, "Ye 
waves, teeming with life, be ye earth, and remain 
in form as now, until the planet which bears you dis- 
solves ! " And so, frozen into stillness at the instant, 
what were then billows of water now stretch away 
billows of land into what seems to the traveler in- 
finite distance, with the same long roll lapping against 
and upon distant huttes that the Atlantic has to-day 

(112) 



MORNING ON THE PLAINS. 113 

in lashing its rock-ribbed coasts ; and whenever man's 
busy industry cleaves asunder the surface, the depths, 
like those of ocean, give back their monsters and 
rare shells. Huge saurians, locked for a thousand 
centuries in their vice-like prison, rise up, not as of 
old to bask lazily in the sun, but to gape with huge 
jaws at the demons of lightning and steam rushing 
i)ast, and to crack the stiff backs of savans with their 
forty feet of tail. 

To the south of us, and distant several miles, was 
the line, scarcely visible, of the Smoky Hill, treeless 
and desolate; on the north, .the upper Saline, equally 
barren. As difficult to distinguish as two brown 
threads dividing a brown carpet, they might have 
been easily overlooked, had we not known the streams 
were there, and, with the aid of our glasses, sought 
for their ill-defined banks. 

A curve in the road brought us suddenly and 
sharply face to face with the sun, just rising in the 
far-away east, and flashing its ruddy light over the 
vast plain around us. Its bright red rim first ap- 
peared, followed almost immediately by its round 
face, for all the world like a jolly old jack tar, M-ith 
his broad brim coming above deck. It reminded me 
on the instant of our brackish friend, Captain Wal- 
rus; and in imagination I dreamily pictured, as com- 
ing after him, with the broadening daylight, a troop 
of Alaskans, their sleds laden with blubber. 

The air was singularly clear and bracing, produc- 
ing an effect upon a pair of healthy lungs like that 
felt on first reaching the sea-beach from a residence 



114 BUFFALO LAND. 

inland. An illusion which had followed many of us 
from boyhood was utterly dissipated by the early 
dawn in this strange land. This was not the fact 
that^ the "great American desert" of our school-days 
is not a desert at all, for this we had known for 
3''ears ; it related to those floods of flame and stifling 
smoke with which sensational writers of western 
novels are wont to sweep, as with a besom of de- 
struction, the whole of prairie-land once at least in 
every story. Young America, wasting uncounted 
gallons of midnight oil in the perusal of peppery 
tales of border life, little suspects how slight the 
foundation uj^on which his favorite author has reared 
his whole vast superstructure of thrilling adventure. 

The scene of these heart-rending narratives is usu- 
ally laid in a boundless plain covered with tall 
grass, and the dramatis personce are an indefinite 
number of buffalo and Indians, a painfully definite 
one of emigrants, two persons unhappy enough to 
possess a beautiful daughter, and a lover still more 
unhappy in endeavoring to acquire title, a rascally 
half-breed burning to prevent the latter feat, and a 
rare old plainsman specially brought into existence to 
" sarcumvent " him. 

At the most critical juncture the " waving sea of 
grass" usually takes fire, in an unaccountable man- 
ner — perhaps from the hot condition of the com- 
batants, or the quantities of burning love and re- 
venge which are recklessly scattered about. Multi- 
tudes of frightened buffalo and gay gazelles make the 
ground shake in getting out of the way, and the 
flames go to licking the clouds, while the emigrants 





\m 



FIRE ON THE PLAINS, ACCORDING TO NOVELS. 








^■fc 



FIRE ON THE PLAINS, AS IT IS. 



YOUTHFUL TRADITIONS DONE FOR. 117 



go to licking tlio Indians. Although the fire can not 
be put out, one or the other, or ^^ossibly both, of the 
combatants are "put out" in short order. 

Should the miserable parents succeed in getting 
their daughter safely through this peril, it is only be- 
cause she is reserved for a further laceration of our 
feelings. The half-breed soon gets her, and the lo\cr 
and rare old jolainsman get on his track immediately 
afterward. And so on ad Ubihim. 

We beg pardon for condensing into our sunrise re- 
flections the material for a novel, such as has often 
run well through three hundred pages, and furnished 
with competencies half as many bill-posters. It is 
unpleasant to have one's traditionary heroes and 
heroines all knocked into pi before breakfast. It 
makes one crusty. Possibly, it may be their proper 
desert, but, if so, could be better digested after dinner. 

The whole story would fail if the fire did, as novel- 
ists never like to have their heroines left out in the 
cold. But it is as impossible for flames as it is for 
human beings to exist on air alone. It is scarcely 
less so for them to feed, as they are supposed to do, 
on such scanty grass. The truth is, that what the 
bison, with his close-cropping teeth, is enabled to 
grow fat on, makes but poor material for a first-class 
conflagration. 

The grass which covers the great plains of the 
Far West is more like brown moss than what its 
name implies. Perhaps as good an idea of it as is 
possible to any one who has never seen it, may be 
obtained by imagining a great bufl*alo robe covering 



118 BUFFALO LAND. 

the ground. The hair would be about the color and 
nearly the length of the grass, at the season in ques- 
tion. In the spring the plains are fresh and green, 
but the grass cures rapidly on the stalk, and before 
the end of July is brown and ripe. It will then burn 
readily, but the fire is like that eating along a carpet, 
and by no means terrifying to either man or brute. 
The only occasion when it could possibly prove dan- 
gerous is when it reaches, as it sometimes does, some 
of the narrow valleys where the tall grass of the 
bottom grows ; but even then, a run of a hundred 
yards will take one to buffalo grass and safety. This 
latter fact we learned from actual experience, later on 
our trip. 

What a wild land we were in ! A few puffs of a 
locomotive had transferred us from civilization to 
solitude itself. This was the "great American 
desert" which so caught our boyish eyes, in the days 
of our school geography and the long ago. A myste- 
rious land with its wonderful record of savages and 
scouts, battles and hunts. "VYe had a vague idea 
then that a sphynx and half a score of pyramids were 
located somewhere upon it, the sand covering its 
whole surface, when not engaged in some sort of si- 
moon performance above. No trains of camels, with 
wonderful patience and marvelous reservoirs of water 
internally, dragged their weary way along, it was 
true; yet that animal's first cousin, the American 
mule, was there in numbers, as hardy and as useful 
as the other. Many an eastern mother, in the days 
of the gold fever, took down her boys discarded atlas, 
and finding the space on the continent marked " Great 



A SINGULAR SYXCHRONISM. 119 

American Desert," followed with tearful eyes the 
course of the emigrant trains, and tried to fix the 
spot where the dear bones of her first-born lay 
bleaching. 

As a people, .we are better acquainted with the 
wastes of Egypt than with some parts of our own land. 
The plains have been considered the abode of hun- 
ger, thirst, and violence, and most of our party ex- 
pected to meet these geniuses on the threshold of 
their domain, and, while Shanius should fight the 
first two with his skillet and camp-kettles to war 
against the third with rifle and hunting-knife. 

But in the scene around us there was nothing ter- 
rifying in the least degree. The sun had risen with 
a clear highway before him, and no clouds to entan- 
gle his chariot wheels. lie was mellow at this early 
hour, and scattered down his light and warmth lib- 
erally. AYherever the soil was turned up by the 
track, we discovered it to be strong and deep, and 
capable of producing abundant crops of resin weeds 
and sunflowers, which with farmers is a written cer- 
tificate, in the "language of flowers," of good char- 
acter. 

We thundered through many thriving cities of 
prairie dogs, the inhabitants of which seemed all out 
of doors, and engaged in tail-bearing from house to 
house. The principal occupations of this animal ap- 
pears to be t^Vo; first, barking like a squirrel, and 
second, jerking the caudal appendage, which opera- 
tions synchronize with remarkable exactitude. One 
single cord seems to operate both extremities of the 
little body at once. It could no more open its mouth 



120 BUFFALO LAND. 

without twitching its tail, than a single-thread Jack 
could bow its head without lifting its legs. Those 
nearest us would look pertly at us for a moment, and 
then dive head foremost into their holes. The tail 
would hardly disappear before the head would take 
its place and, peering out, scrutinize us with twink- 
ling eyes, and chatter away in concert with its neigh- 
bors, with an effect which reminded me of a forest 
of monkeys suddenly disturbed. 

Sachem declared that they must all be females, for 
no sooner had one been frightened into the house 
than it poked its head out again to see what was the 
matter. " That sex would risk life at any time to 
know what was up." 

The professor, with a more practical turn, told us 
some of the quaint little animal's habits. "Why 
it is called a dog," said he, " I do not know. ISTeither 
in bark, form, or life, is there any resemblance. It 
is carnivorous, herbivorous, and abstemious from 
water, requiring no other fluids than those obtained 
by eating roots. Its villages are often far removed 
from water, and when tamed it never seems to desire 
the latter, though it may acquire a taste for milk. 
It partakes of meats and vegetables with apparently 
equal relish. It is easily captured by pouring two or 
three buckets of water down the hole, when it 
emerges looking somewhat like a half-drowned rat. 
The prairie dog is the head of the original 'happy 
family.' It was formerly affirmed, even in works of 
natural history, that a miniature evidence of the 
millennium existed in the home of this little animal. 
There the rattlesnake, the owl, and the dog were 



THE "happy family" misundeestood. 121 

supposed to lie down together, and such is still the 
general belief. It was known that the bird and the 
reptile lived in these villages with the dog, and 
science set them down as honored guests, instead of 
robbers and murderers, as they really are." 

On our trip we frequently killed snakes in these 
villages which were distended with dogs recently 
swallowed. The owls feed on the younger members 
of the household, and the old dogs, except when lin- 
gering for love of their young, are not long in aban- 
doning a habitation when snakes and owls take 
possession of it. The latter having two votes, and 
the owner but one (female suffrage not being ac- 
knowledged among the brutes), it is a "happy fam- 
ily," on democratic principles of the strictest sort. 

We have also repeatedly noticed the dogs busily 
engaged in filling up a hole quite to the mouth with 
dirt, and we are led to believe that in this manner 
they occasionally revenge themselves upon their ene- 
mies, perhaps when the latter are gorged with ten- 
der puppies, by burying them alive. An old scout 
once told us that this filling up process occurred 
whenever one of their community was dead in his 
house, but as his statement was only conjectural, we 
prefer the other theory. 

While we were this day steaming through one vil- 
lage an incident occurred showing that these animals 
have yet another active enemy. Startled by the 
cars, the dogs were scampering in all directions, 
when a powerful chicken-hawk shot down among 
them with such wonderful rapidity of flight that his 
shadow, which fell like that from a flying fragment 



122 BUFFALO LAND. 

of cloud, scarcely seemed to reach the eartli before 
him. Some hundreds of the little brown fellows 
were running for dear life, and plunging wildly into 
their holes without any manifestations of their usual 
curiosity. The hawdv's shadow fell on one fat, 
burgher-like dog, perhaps the mayor of the town, 
and in an instant the robber of the air was over him 
and the talons fastened in his back. Then the bird 
of prey beat heavily wdth its pinions, rising a few 
feet, but, finding the prize too heavy, came down. 
He was evidently frightened at the noise of the cars 
and we hoped the prisoner would escape. But the 
bird, clutching firmly for an instant the animal in 
its talons, drew back his head to give force to the 
blow, and down clashed the hooked beak into one 
of the victim's eyes. A sharp pull, and the eyeball 
was plucked out. Back went the beak a second 
time, and the remaining eye was torn from its socket, 
and the sightless body was then left squirming on 
the ground, while the hawk flew hastily away a short 
distance, evidently to return when we had passed on. 
It was pitiful to see the dog raise up on its haunches 
and for an instant sit facing us with its empty sockets, 
then make two or three short runs to find a path, in 
its sudden darkness, to some hole of refuge, but 
fruitlessly, of course. 

A few days afterward, at Hays City, w^e witnessed 
an affair in which the air-pirate got worsted. While 
sitting before the office of the village doctor, a pow- 
erful hawk pounced upon his favorite kitten, which 
lay asleep on the grass, and started off with it. The 
two had reached an elevation of fifty feet, when puss 



FELINE IS VICTOR. 123 

recovered from her surprise and went to work for 
liberty. She had always been especially addicted to 
dining on birds, and the sensation of being carried 
off by one excited the feline mind to astonishment 
and wrath. Twisting herself like a weasel her claws 
came uppermost, and to our straining gaze there was 
a sight presented very much as if a feather-bed had 
been ripped open. The surprised hawk had evidently 
received new light on the subject; it let go on the 
instant, and went off with the appearance of a badly 
plucked goose, while the cat came safely to earth and 
sought the nearest way home. 



CHAPTER IX. 

WE SEE BUFFALO ARRIVAL AT HAYS GENERAL SHERIDAN AT THE FORT INDIAN 

MURDERS — BLOOD-CHRISTEXING OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD SURPRISED BY A 

BUFFALO HERD — A BUFFALO BULL IN A QUANDARY GENTLE ZEPHYRS — HOW 

A CIRCUS WENT OFF — BOLOGNA TO LEAN ON A CALL UPON SHERIDAN. 

AS we passed out of the dog village, the engine 
gave several short, sharp whistles, and number- 
less heads were at once thrust out to ascertain the 
cause. "Buffalo!" was the cr}'', and with this there 
was a rush to the windows for a view of the noblest 
of American game. Even sleepy elderly gentlemen 
jostled rudely, and Sachem forgot his liver so far as to 
crowd into a favorable position beside a young woman, 
"There they go!" "Oh, my, what monsters!" 
" What beards ! " " What horns ! " " Beats a steeple- 
chase!" "Uncanny beasts, lookin' and gangin' like 
Nick!" "Sure, they're going home from a divil's 
wake !" and similar ejaculations filled the car, as they 
do a race-stand when the horses are oif. Two huge 
bulls had crossed just ahead of the engine, and one of 
them, apparently deeming escape impossible, was 
standing at bay close to the track, head down for a 
charge. He was furious with terror, the hissing 
steam and cow-catcher having been close at his heels 
for a hundred yards. As w^e flew past he was imme- 
diately under our windows, and we were obliged to 

(124) 



LO'S FAVORITE VICTIM. 125 

look down to get a view of his immense body, with 
the back curving up gradually from the tail into an 
uncouth hump over the fore shoulders. 

These two solitary old fellows were the only buffalo 
we saw from the train, the herds at large having 
not yet commenced their southern journey. At cer- 
tain seasons, however, they cover the plains on each 
side of the road for fifty or sixty miles in countless 
multitudes. These wild cattle of Uncle Samuel's, if 
called upon, could supply the whole Yankee nation 
with meat for an indefinite period. 

About noon we arrived at Hays City, two hundred 
and eighty miles from the eastern border of the State, 
and eighty miles out upon the plains. A stream tol- 
erably well timbered, known as Big Creek, runs 
along the southern edge of the town, and just across 
it lies Fort Ila^'s, town and fort being less than a 
mile apart. 

The post possessed considerable military impor- 
tance, being the base of operations for the Indian 
country. Wo found Sheridan there, an officer who 
won his fame gallantly and on the gallop. During 
the summer our red brethren had been gathering a 
harvest of scalps, and, in return, our army was now 
preparing to gather in the gentle savage. 

We had read accounts in the newspapers, some 
time before, of the capture of Fort Wallace and of at- 
tacks on military posts. Such stories were not only 
untrue, but exceedingly ridiculous as well. Lo is not 
sound on the assault question. His chivalrous soul 
warms, however, when some forlorn Fenian, with 

spade on shoulder and thoughts far off with Biddy 

7 



126 BUFFALO LAND. 

in Erin's Isle, crosses liis vision. Being satisfied 
that Patrick has no arms, his only defense being ut- 
ter harmlessness, and well knowing that the sight of 
a painted skin, rendered sleek by boiled dog's meat, 
will make him frantic with terror, the soul of the no- 
ble savage expands. No more shall the spade, held 
so jauntily, throw Kansas soil on the bed of the Pa- 
cific Pvailroad ; and the scalp, yet tingling with the 
boiling of incipient Fenian revolutions underneath, on 
the pole of a distant wigwam will soon gladden the 
eyes of the traditionally beautiful Indian bride, as 
with dirty hands she throws tender puppies into the 
pot for her warrior's feast. The savage hand, crim- 
son since childhood, descends with defiant ring upon 
the tawny breast, and, with a cry of, "Me big Indian, ha, 
whoop !" down sweeps Lo upon the defenseless Hiber- 
nian. A startled stare, a shriek of wild agony, a hur- 
ried prayer to "our Mary mother," and Erin's son 
christens those far-off points of the Pacific Railroad 
with his blood. A rapid circle of hunting-knife and 
the scalp is lifted, a few twangs of the bow fills 
the body with arrows, there is a rapid vault into the 
saddle, and a mutilated corpse, with feathered tips, 
like pins in a cushion, dotting its surface, alone re- 
mains to tell the tale of horror. 

Blood had been every-where on the railroad, which 
reached across the plains like a steel serpent spotted 
with red. There was now a cessation of hostilities, 
and Indian agents were reported to be on the way 
from Washington to pacify the tribes. As they had 
been a long time m coming, the inference was irre- 
sistible that the po2:>ping of champagne corks was a 



TWILIGHT MUSINGS. 129 

much more pleasant experience than that of In^lian 
guns would have been. The harv^est of scalps had 
reached high noon some time before. Far oif, south 
of the Arkansas, the savages had their home, and 
from thence, like baleful will-o'-the-wisps, they would 
suddenly flash out, and then flash back when pur- 
sued, and be lost in those remote regions. Lately, 
United States troops have been so placed that the 
Indian villages may be struck, if necessary, and retal- 
iation had; and this, together with the pacificatory 
effbrts of the Quaker agents, is doing much to bring- 
about a condition of things which promises perma- 
nent peace. 

Here our party was at Hays, the objective point of 
our journey, and our base of operations against the 
treasures of the past and present, which alike covered 
the country around. This little town is in the midst 
of the great butfjilo range. Away upon every side 
of it stretch those vast plains where the short, crisp 
grass curls to the ridges, like an African's kinky hair to 
his skull. Bison and wild horse, antelope and wolf, for 
weeks were now to be our neighbors, appearing and 
vanishing over the great expanse like large and small 
piratical crafts on an ocean. We were kindly received 
at the Big Creek Land Company's office, on the out- 
skirts of the town, and there deposited our guns and 
baggage. Our horses were expected on the morrow. 

Twilight found us, after a busy afternoon, sitting 
around the office door, with that tired feeling which a 
traveler has when mind and body are equally ex- 
hausted. Our very tongues were silent, those useful 
members having wagged until even the}" were grate- 



130 BUFFALO LAND. 

fill for the rest. The hour of dusk, of all others, is 
the time for musing, and almost involuntarily our 
minds wandered back a twelve-month, when the 
plains were a solitude. JN'o railroad, no houses, no 
tokens of civilization save only a few solitary posts, 
garrisoned with corporal's guards, and surrounded by 
red fiends thirsty for blood. Such was the picture 
then ; now, the clangor of a city echoed through Big 
Creek Valley. 

While wondering at the change, away on the hills 
to our right there rose a thundering tread, like the 
marching of a mighty multitude. Shamus, who sat 
directly facing the hill, saw something which chilled 
the Dobeen blood, and caused that noble Irishman to 
plunge behind us. Mr. Colon, who had given a 
startled turn of the head over his right shoulder, ex- 
claimed, "Bless me, what's that?" The glance of 
]Muggs froze that Briton so completely that he failed 
to tell us of ever having seen a more "hextraor- 
dinary thing in Hingland." I am in doubt whether 
even our grave professor did not imagine for the mo- 
ment that the mammalian age was taking a tilt 
at us. 

Gathering twilight had magnified what in broad day 
would have been an apparition sufficiently startling 
to any new arrival in Buffalo Land. A long line of 
black, shaggy forms was standing on the crest and 
looking down upon us. It had come forward like the 
rush of a hungry wave, and now remained as one 
uplifted, dark and motionless. In bold relief against 
the horizon stood an array of colossal figures, all 
bristling with sharp points, which at first sight 



A^S" ASTONISHED BISOX. 131 

seemed lances, but at the second resolved into horns. 
Then it dawned upon our minds that a herd of the 
great American bison stood befor-e us. AVhat a 
grateful reduction of lumps in more than one throat, 
and how the air ran riot in lately congealed lungs ! 

Dobeen declared he thought the professor's "ghosts 
of the centuries " had been looking down upon us. 

One old fellow, evidently a leader in Buffalo Land, 
with long patriarchial beard and shaggy forehead, 
remained in front, his head upraised. His whole at- 
titude bespoke intense astonishment. For years this 
had been their favorite path between Arkansas and 
the Platte. Big Creek's green valley had given suc- 
culent grasses to old and young of the bison tribe 
from time immemorial. Every hollow had its tradi- 
tions of fierce wolf fights and Indian ambuscades, 
and many a stout bull could remember the exact 
spot where his charge had rescued a mother and her 
3'oung from the hungry teeth of starving timber 
w^olves. Every wallow, tree, and sheltering ravine 
were sacred in the traditions of Buffalo Land. The 
petrified bones of ancestors who fell to sleep there a 
thousand years before testified to purity of bison 
blood and pedigree. 

JS'ow all this was changed. Rushing toward their 
loved valle}", they found themselves in the suburbs of 
a town. Yells of red man and wolf were never so hor- 
rible as that of the demon flashing along the valle3^'s 
bed. A great iron path lay at their feet, barring 
them back into the wilderness. Slowly the shaggy 
monarch shook his head, as if in doubt whether this 
were a vision or not; then whirling suddenly, per- 



132 BUFFALO LAND. 

haps indignantly, he turned away and disappeared 
behind the ridge, and the bison multitude followed. 

Our horses arrived the next niorning all safe, ex- 
cej)ting a few skin bruises, the steed Cynocephalus, 
however, being a trifle stiffer than usual, from the 
motion of the cars. When they were trotted out 
for inspection, by some hostlers whom we had hired 
that morning for our trip, the inhabitants must have 
considered the sight the next best thing to a circus. 

Apropos of circuses, we learned that one had exhib- 
ited for the first and only time on the plains a few 
months before. In that country, dear reader, ^olus 
has a habit of loafing around with some of his sacks 
in which young whirlwinds are put up ready for use. 
One of these is liable to be shaken out at any 
moment, and the first intimation afforded you that 
the spirit which feeds on trees and fences is loose, is 
when it snatches your hat, and begins flinging dust 
and pebbles in your eyes. But to return to our 
circus performance. For awhile all j^assed off admi- 
rably. The big tent swallowed the multitude, and 
it in turn swallowed the jokes of the clown, older, 
of course, than himself. In the customary little tent 
the living skeleton embodied Sidney Smith's wish 
and sat cooling in his bones, while the learned pig 
and monkey danced to the melodious accompaniment 
of the hand-organ. 

Suddenly there was a clatter of poles, and two 
canvass clouds flew out of sight like balloons. The 
living skeleton found himself on a distant ridge, with 
the wind whistling among his ribs, while the monkey 



A BAXKRUPT SHOWMAN. 135 

performed somersaults which would have astonished 
the original Cynocephalus. The pig meanwhile 
found refuge behind the organ, which the hurricane, 
with a better ear for music than man, refused to 
turn. 

"Mademoiselle Zavenowski, the beautiful leading 
equestrienne of the world," just preparing to jump 
through a hoop, went through her own with a 
whirl, and stood upon the plains feeding the hungry 
storm with her charms. The graceful young rider, 
lately perforating hearts with the kisses she flung at 
them, in a trice had become a maiden of fifty, notice- 
ably the worse for wear. 

An eye-witness, in describing the scene to us, said 
the circus went off without a single drawback. It 
was as if a ton of gunpowder had been fired under 
the ring. Just as the clown was rubbing his leg, as 
the result of calling the sensitive ring-master a fool 
(a sham suffering, though for truth's sake), there 
was a sharp crack, and the establishment dissolved. 
High in air went hats and bonnets, like fragments 
shot out of a volcano. The spirits of zephyr-land 
carried off uncounted hundreds of tiles, both military 
and civil, and we desire to place it upon record that 
should a future missionary, in some remote northern, 
tribe, find traditions of a time when the sky rained 
hats, they may all be accounted for on j^urely 
scientific grounds. 

Much property was lost, but no lives. The im- 
mediate results were a bankrupt showman and a run 
on liniments and sticking-plaster. 



136 BUFFALO LAND. 

Our first hunt was to be on the Saline, which 
comes down. from the west about fifteen miles north 
of Hays City. 

Before starting, We carefully overhauled our entire 
outfit. For a long, busy day nothing was thought 
of save the cleaning of guns, the oiling of straps, and 
the examination of saddles, with sundry additions to 
wardrobe and larder. Shamus became a mighty 
man among grocery-keepers, and could scarcely have 
been more popular had he been an Indian supply 
agent. The inventory which he gave us of his pur- 
chases comprised twelve cans of condensed milk, with 
coffee, tea, and sugar, in proportion ; several pounds 
each of butter, bacon, and crackers ; a few loaves of 
bread, two sacks of flour, some pickles, and a suffi- 
cient number of tin-plates, cups, and spoons. To these 
he subsequently added a half-dozen hams and some- 
thing like fifty yards of Bologna sausage, which he 
told us were for use when we should tire of fresh 
meat. Sachem entered protest, declaring that sau- 
sage and ham, in a country full of game, reflected 
upon us. 

Of course, we found use for every item of the above, 
and especially for the Bologna. If one can feel satis- 
fied in his own mind as to what portion of the brute 
creation is entering into him, a half-yard of Bologna, 
tied to the saddle, stays the stomach wonderfully on 
an all day's ride. It is so handy to reach it, while 
trotting along, and with one's hunting-knife cut off a 
few inches for immediate consumption. Semi-Colon, 
however, who was a youth of delicate stomach, sick- 
ened on his ration one day, because he found some- 



^^>^^ 



.-^"''i:....^^^ 







THE RARE OLD PLAINSMAN OF THE NOVELS. 



Sheridan's camp ox big creek. 139 

thing in it which, he said, looked like the end of a tail. 
It is a debatable question, to my mind, whether 
Satan, among his many ways of entering into man, 
does not occasionally do so in the folds of Bologna 
sausage. Certain it is that, after such repast, one 
often feels like Old Nick, and woe be to the man at 
any time who is at all dyspeptic. All the forces of 
one's gastric juices may then prove insufficient to 
wage successful battle with the evil genius which 
rends him. 

Our outfit, as regards transportation, consisted of 
the animals heretofore mentioned, and two teams 
which we hired at Hays, for the baggage and com- 
missary supplies. ^ 

The evening before our departure we rode over to 
the fort and called upon General Sheridan. " Little 
Phil" had pitched his camp on the bank of Big 
Creek, a short distance below the fort, preferring a 
soldier's life in the tent to the more comfortable 
officer's quarters. This we thought eminently char- 
acteristic of the man. He is an accumulation of 
tremendous energy in small compass, a sort of cm- 
bodied nitro-glycerine, but dangerous only to his 
enemies. Famous principally as a cavalry leader, 
because Providence flung him into the saddle and 
started him off at a gallop, had his destiny been in- 
fantr}^, he would have led it to victory on the run. 
And now, officer after officer having got sadly tangled 
in the Indian web, which was w^eaving its strong- 
threads over so fair a portion of our land, Sheridan 
was sent forward to cut his way through it. 

The camp was a pretty picture with its line of 



140 BUFFALO LAND. 

white tents, the timber along the creek for a back- 
ground, and the solemn, apparently illimitable plains 
stretching away to the horizon in front. Taken alto- 
gether, it looked more like the comfortable nooning 
spot of a cavalry scout than the quarters of a famous 
Greneral. Our chieftain stood in front of the center 
tent, with a few staff-officers lounging near by, his 
short, thick-set figure and firm head giving us some- 
how the idea of a small, sinewy lion. 

We found the General thoroughly conversant with 
the difficult task to which he had been called. "Place 
the Indians on reservations," he said, " under their 
own chiefs, with an honest white superintendency. 
Let the civil law reign on the reservation, military 
law away from it, every Indian found by the troops 
off from his proper limits to be treated as an outlaw." 
It seemed to me that in a few brief sentences this 
mapped out a successful Indian policy, part of which 
indeed has since been adopted, and the remainder 
may yet be. 

When speaking of late savageries on the plains 
the eyes of "Little Phil" glittered wickedly. In one 
case, on Spillman's Creek, a band of Cheyennes had 
thrust a rusty sword into the body of a woman with 
child, piercing alike mother and offspring, and, giving 
it a fiendish twist, left the weapon in her body, the 
poor woman being found by our soldiers yet living. 

"I believe it possible," said Sheridan, "at once and 
forever to stop these terrible crimes." As he spoke, 
however, we saw what he apparently did not, a long- 
string of red tape, of which one end was pinned to 
his official coat-tail, while the other remained in the 



A STAMPEDE OF MULES. 141 

hands of tlie Department at Washington. Soon 
after, as Sheridan pushed forward, the Washington 
end twitched vigorously. lie managed, however, 
with his right arm, Custer, to deal a sledge-hammer 
blow, which broke to fragments the Cheyenne Black- 
kettle and his band. Whether or not that band had 
been guilty of the recent murders, the property of 
the slain was found in their possession, and the ter- 
rible punishment caused the residue of the tribe to 
sue for peace. It was the first time for years that 
the war spirit had placed any horrors at their doors, 
and that one terrible lesson prepared the savage mind 
for the advent of peace commissioners. 

Our brief conference ended, the General bade us 
good day, and wished us a pleasant experience. 
Scarcely had we got beyond his tents, however, when 
we were overtaken by a decidedly unpleasant one. 
On their way to water, a troop of mules stampeded, 
and passing us in a cloud of dust, our brutes took bits 
in their teeth, and joined company. Happily, the 
run was a short one to the creek, where those of 
us who had not fallen off before managed to do so 
then. Poor Gripe was the only person injured, 
suffering the fracture of a rib, which necessitated his 
return to Topeka, so that we did not see him again 
until some months afterward, when we met him on 
the Solomon. 



CHAPTER X. 

HATS CITY BY LAMP-LIGHT — THE SANTA FE TRADE — BULL-WHACKERS — MEXICANS- 
SABBATH ON THE PLAINS THE DARK AGES WILD BILL AND BUFFALO BILL 

OFF FOR THE SALINE DOBEEN's GHOST-STORY AN ADVENTURE WITH INDIANS 

MEXICAN CANNONADE A RUNAWAY. 

HAYS CITY by lamp-light was remarkably lively 
and not very moral. The streets blazed with 
the reflection from saloons, and a glance within 
showed floors crowded with dancers, the gaily dress- 
ed women striving to hide with ribbons and paint 
the terrible lines which that grim artist. Dissipa- 
tion, loves to draw upon such faces. With a heart- 
less humor he daubs the noses of the sterner sex a 
cherry red, but paints under the once bright eyes of 
woman a shade dark as the night in the cave of des- 
pair. To the music of violin and stamping of feet, 
the dance went on, and we saw in the giddy maze old 
men who must have been pirouetting on the very 
edge of their graves. 

Being then the depot for the great Santa Fe trade, 
the town was crowded with Mexicans and specula- 
tors. Large warehouses along the track were stored 
with wool awaiting shipment east, and with mer- 
chandise to be taken back with the returning wagons. 
These latter are of immense size, and, from this cir- 

(142) 



HIRING BULL-WHACKERS. 143 

cumstance, are sometimes called "prairie schooners; " 
and, in truth, when a train of them is winding its 
way over the plains, the white covers flecking its sur- 
face like sails, the sight is not unlike a fleet coming 
into port. Oxen and mules are both used. Wlien 
the former, the drivers rejoice in the title of "bull- 
whackers," and the crack of their whips, as loud as 
the report of a rifle, is something tremendous. 

On the day of our arrival at Hays City, one of 
these festive individuals noticed Dobeen gazing, with 
open mouth, and back towards him, at some object 
across the street, and took the opportunity to crack 
his lash within an inch of the Irishman's spine. The 
efl*ect was ludicrous ; Shamus came in on the run to 
have a ball extracted from his back ! 

These Mexicans who come through with the ox- 
trains are a very degraded race, dark, dirt}^, and dis- 
mal. In appearance, they much resemble animated 
bundles of rags, walking ofl' with heads of charcoal. 
Personal bravery is not one of their striking charac- 
teristics ; indeed, they often run away when to stand 
still would seem to an American the only safe course 
possible. We were desirous of sending back to Hays 
City some of the proceeds of our excursion for shi^)- 
ment to friends at St. Louis and Chicago, and there- 
fore hired two of the Mexican teamsters to go as far 
as the Saline, and return with the fruits of our prow- 
ess. For this service, which would occupy about 
four days, they were to receive twenty-five dollars 
each. 

The morrow was Sunday, and came to us, as nine- 
tenths of the mornings on the plains did afterward, 



144 BUFFALO LAND. 

clear and bracing. Compared with the previous 
evening, the little town was very quiet. There was 
no stir in the streets, although later in the morning 
a few of the last night's carousers came out of doors, 
rubbing their sleep}'' eyes, and slunk around town for 
the remainder of the day. All nature was calm and 
beautiful ; it almost seemed as if we might hear the 
chime of Sabbath bells float to us from somewhere in 
the depths around. 

One of our sea legends recites that ship wrecked 
bells, fallen from the society of men to that of mer- 
maids, are straightway hung on coral steeples, where, 
when storms roar around the rocks above, they toll 
for the deaths of the mariners. Was it impossible, 
we mused, that ancient mariners, with whole cargoes 
of bells, went down on this inland sea centuries be- 
fore Rome howled ? The earth around us might be 
as full of musical tongues as of saurians, and only 
awaiting the savan's spade and sympathetic touch to 
give their dumb eloquence voice. If the people of those 
days were navigators, surely they might also have 
been men of metal. In the far-away past existed 
numerous arts which Baffle modern ingenuity. Stones 
were lifted at sight of which our engineers stand dis- 
mayed. Bodies were embalmed with a skill and per- 
fection which our medical faculty admire, but have 
scarcely even essayed to imitate. Is it impossible 
that vessels plowed this ancient ocean with a speed 
which would have left our Cunarders out of sight? 
If human spirits freed from earth take cognizance of 
following generations, how those old captains must 



WILD BILL. 145 

have laughed when Fulton boarded his wheezing ex- 
periment to paddle up the Hudson ! And if our 
doctor's Darwinian-Pythagorean theory were correct, 
Fulton's spirit might have brought the crude idea 
from some ancient stoker. 

But while we were thus speculating and giving free 
reins to Fancy's most erratic moods, the chaplain 
arrived from the fort, and mounting the freight plat- 
form, read the Episcopal morning service. A crowd 
gathered around, and a voice from the past whisper- 
ing in their ears, a few bowed their heads during 
prayer. A drunkard went brawling by, with a side- 
long glance and the leering look of ej'es whose watery 
lids seemed making vain efforts to quench the fiery 
balls. How it grated on one's feelings ! In a land 
so eloquent Avith voices of the mighty past, it seemed 
as if even instinct would cause the knee to bow in 
homage before its ^laker. 

Monda}^ was our day of final preparation, and we 
commenced it by making the acquaintance of those 
two celebrated characters. Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill, 
or, more correctly, William Hickock and William 
Cody. The former was acting as sheriff of the town, 
and the latter we engaged as our guide to the Saline. 

Wild Bill made his entree into one court of the 
temple of fame some years since through Harper's 
Magazine. Since then his name has become a house- 
hold word to residents along the Kansas frontier. 
We found him very quiet and gentlemanly, and not 
at all the reckless fellow we had supposed. His form 
won our admiration — the shoulders of a Hercules 
with the waist of a girl. Much has been written 



146 BUFFALO LAND. 

about Wild Bill that is pure fiction. I do not be- 
lieve, for example, that he could hit a nickel across 
the street with a pistol-ball, any more than an Indian 
could do so with an arrow. These feats belong to 
romance. Bill is wonderfully handy with his pistols, 
however. He then carried two of them, and while 
we were at Hays snufi"ed a man's life out with one ; 
but this was done in his capacity of officer. Two 
rowdies devoted their energies to brewing a riot, and 
defied arrest until, at Bill's first shot, one fell dead, 
and the other threw up his arms in token of submis- 
sion. During his life time Bill has probably killed 
his baker's dozen of men, but he has never, I believe, 
been known as the aggressor. To the people of 
Hays he was a valuable officer, making arrests when 
and where none other dare attempt it. His power 
lies in the wonderful quickness with which he draws 
a pistol and takes his aim. These first shots, how- 
ever, can not always last. "They that take the sword 
shall perish with the sword ; " and living as he does 
by the pistol, Bill will certainly die by it, unless he 
abandons the frontier. 

Only a short time after we left Hays two soldiers 
attempted his life. Attacked unexpectedly, Bill was 
knocked down and the muzzle of a musket placed 
against his forehead, but before it could be discharged 
the ready pistol was drawn and the two soldiers fell 
down, one dead, the other badly wounded. Their 
companions clamored for revenge, and Bill changed 
his base. He afterward became marshal of the 
town of Abilene, where he signalized himself by car- 
rying a refractory councilman on his shoulders to 




^/^^/ 'M/'%// 




m^i ' ^ 



BUFFALO BILL. 149 

tlio coimcil-cliamber. A few months later some 
drunken Texans attempted a riot, and one of them, 
a noted gambler, commenced firing on the marshal. 
The latter returned the fire, shooting not only the 
gambler, but one of his own friends, who, in the gloom 
of the evening, was hurrying to his aid. Bill paid 
the expenses of the latter's funeral, which on the 
frontier is considered the proper and delicate way of 
consoling the widow whenever such little accidents 
occur. 

The Professor took occasion, before parting with 
Wild William, to administer some excellent advice, 
urging him especially, if he wished to die in his bed, 
to abandon the pistol and seize upon the plow-share. 
His reputation as Union scout, guide for the Indian 
country, and sheriff of frontier towns, our leader 
said, was a sufficient competency of fame to justify 
his retirement upon it. In this opinion, as before 
intimated, I coincide most heartily. 

Buffalo Bill was to be our guide. He informed us 
that Wild Bill was his cousin. Cody is spare and 
wiry in figure, admirably versed in plain lore, and 
altogether the best guide I ever saw. The mysteri- 
ous plain is a book that he knows by heart. He 
crossed it twice as teamster, while a mere boy, and 
has spent the greater part of his life on it since. 
He led us over its surface on starless nights, when 
the shadow of the blackness above hid our horses 
and the earth, and though many a time with no trail 
to follow and on the very mid-ocean of the expanse, he 
never made a failure. Buffalo Bill has since figured 
in one of Buntline's Indian romances. We award 



150 BUFFALO LAND. 

him the credit of being a good scout and most 
excellent guide ; but the fact that he can slaughter 
buffiilo is b}^ no means remarkable, since the Ameri- 
can bison is dangerous game only to amateurs. 

We were off early on Tuesda}^ morning for the 
Saline, our course toward which lay before us a little 
west of north, the citizens turning out to see us start. 
We had just parted from Grripe, who went East on 
the first train to get his ribs healed. " To think, 
gentlemen," said he, " that I should have escaped 
rebel bullets and Indian atrocities, only to have 
my ribs cracked at last by a stampede of mules ! " 
Poor Grripe's farewell reminded me strongly of the 
old saying about the ruling passion strong in death. 
As he stood on the platform, with one hand against 
his aching side, he could not refrain from waving a 
courtly adieu with the other, and bowing himself 
from our presence, into the car, as if leaving the 
stage after a political speech. 

We were sorry to lose our friend, and this, to- 
gether with the thought of the weeks of uncertain- 
ties and anxieties which lay before us, made our exit 
from Hays rather a solemn affair. Even Tammany 
Sachem's face was ironed out so completely that not 
a smile wrinkled it. Dobeen had loaded one wagon 
with culinary weapons, and now sat among his pots 
and pans, evidently ill at ease and wishing himself 
doing any thing else rather than about to plunge 
further into the wilderness. 

When about to mount Cynocephalus, Semi's feel- 
ings were wounded by a depraved urchin who sug- 
gested, " You'd better fust knock that fly off, Boss. 



THE PROFESSOR DISCOURSETH. 151 

Both on ye '11 be too much for the hoss ! " For- 
tunately, perhaps, for our feelings, the remainder of 
the inhabitants were so civil that further criticisms 
on our outfit, though they may have been ripe at 
their tongues' end, were carefully repressed. 

Moving out over the divide above town the Pro- 
fessor noticed the general depression of the party, 
and forthwith began philosophising. 

" My friends," said he, " had the feelings which 
explorers suffer, when fairly launched, been allowed 
to be present during the days of preparation, science 
and discovery would be in their infancy. Enthusiasm 
bridges the first obstacles to an undertaking, but 
others roll on and block the explorer's path, and the 
spirit which has got him into the difficult}' momen- 
tarily deserts him. If properly courted, however, 
she returns, and meanwhile the traveler is afforded 
the opportunity of looking, through matter-of-fact 
spectacles, along his future journey. What he 
thought pebbles reveal themselves as hills, and what 
he had marked on his chart as hills develop into 
mountains. These he must recognize and examine 
with all the resolution he can summon, and he will 
be the more able to climb them from expecting to do 
so. Right here is the critical point in his journey. 
Numerous cross-roads branch off — some right, 
others left, but all with a brighter prospect down 
them. Perhaps on one, a wife and children stand at 
the door of their home, beckoning him. The garden 
that his own hand planted blooms in a background 
of flowers, while the path he has now chosen sparkles 
with winter snow. He knows, however, that beyond 



152 BUFFALO LAND. 

these, perhaps amid sterile mountains, are the pre- 
cious diamonds he seeks. 

" It is wise that, where these roads branch off — some 
to castles of indolence, others to comfortable homes 
and moderate exertion — the man should be left alone 
for a time and allowed to survey the rough path be- 
fore him, with all the blinding glamour of enthusiasm 
subdued by the light of truth, and with a full knowl- 
edge of all the stumbling blocks, which lie before 
him. If he then thumbs the edge of his hunting- 
knife, examines his Henry rifle, and presses forward, 
the metal is there, and from that time onward you 
may at any time learn of his whereabouts by inquir- 
ing at the temple of fame." 

Sachem interrupted the Professor to remonstrate 
at the girding of loins being left out. He had always 
been used to the girding in similar discourses, and 
considered that loins were in much more general use 
than Henry rifles. 

And now Shamus, from his perch on the pans, sud- 
denly broke in : " Faith, Professor, your enthusiasm 
once brought me sore trouble. It got me into a 
haunted house, when the clock was strikin' midnight, 
and my legs were sore put to it to get me out fast 
enough. Ye see, I bet a pig with my next cousin 
that I would stay all night in an old house full of 
spirits. The master and his house-keeper had been 
murdered in the tenantry riots, and the boys that did 
the business, they swung for it soon afterward. And 
now, there was a regular barricadin' and attackin' 
going on those nights ever since. While I was 
lookin' at the old clock, and thinkin' of the pig I 'd 



LADY DOBEEX S SORROW. 153 

drag home in the morning, I must have dramed a 
little. He was as likely a pig as yez ever saw, and 
I was listenin' proudly to his swale cries as I carried 
him from the sty, and feelin' full enough of enthusiasm 
to stay there a hundred years. Just then there was 
a rustlin' in front, and I opened my eyes wide, and 
there stood the old house-keeper leanin' against the 
shaky clock, with her ear to its yellow face, and 
lookin' straight behind me to where I could feel the 
master was sittin'. There was an awful light in her 
eyes, and I thought I heard her say — any way, I 
knew she was sayin' it — ' Ilark, Sir Donald, they 're 
comin', but the soldiers will be here, too, at twelve.' 
An' then there was a sort of shudder in the old clock 
and it commenced a wheezin' an ban^in' awav, a 
tryin' to get through the strokes of twelve, as it did 
twenty years before. But it had n't got out half, 
when I heard the crowd outside scrapin' against the 
window sill. An' then there come a report, and the 
room was filled with smoke, an' somethin' hit the 
back of my head. How I got out I do n't know, but 
when I come to myself I was running for dear life 
across the common. I have the scar of the ghost's 
bullet ever since. See here, yez can see it for 3'our- 
selves." And taking off his cap, Shamus showed us 
a bald spot about the size of a silver dollar on the 
back of his cranium. 

"And what became of the pig?" asked Mr. Colon 
quietly. 

" Faith, an' my cousin carried him home next 
morning," replied Shamus, with a regretful sigh ; 
"and lady Dobeen, bless her sowl, never forgot to 



154 BUFFALO LAND. 

tell me of that to her dying day. We were neediu' 
the bacon them times." 

Sachem, who delighted to spoil our cook's stories, 
declared that, to gain a pig, it was worth the cousin's 
wdiile to fire an old musket through the window over 
a drunken Irishman inside. Still that did not excuse 
him for his carelessness ; he should have seen that 
the wad flew higher. 

What Dobeen's answ^er might have been will never 
be known ; for, just at that moment, the attention of 
the entire party was suddenly directed to a dark mass 
of moving objects away off upon our right, a mile 
distant at least, and to our untrained eyes entirely 
unrecognizable. The Mexicans, however, pronounced 
them buffaloes. Whether thinking to vindicate his 
reputation for personal courage, or whether simply 
from love of excitement, is not exactly clear, but 
Dobeen eagerly requested permission to pursue them, 
and as he would, ex officio, be debarred the pleasure 
of future sport, consent was given. This was done 
the more readily, because we knew that Shamus, 
while as inexperienced in the chase as any of us, 
was also a wretched rider; for, although Constantly 
boasting of the tournaments he had been engaged in, 
we all indorsed Sachem's opinion, that, if ever con- 
nected with such an affair at all, it must have been in 
holding a horse, not riding one. 

It was worthy of note that every one of the party 
was as eager for the chase as Shamus, and yet that 
personage was allowed to ride off alone. Mr. Colon, 
it is true, essayed to join his company, but after 
going a hundred yards or so, suddenly changed his 



A SUDDEN CHANGE IX AFFAIRS. 155 

mind and came back. Our maiden efforts in buffalo 
hunting promised such modesty as to refuse a public 
appearance, unless together. 

Our cook had been instructed by the guide to avail 
himself of the ravines, and after getting as near the 
herd as possible, then spur rapidly up to it. He 
went off at a gallop, his solid body flying clear of 
the saddle whenever the donkey's feet struck ground, 
and soon disappeared in a ravine which seemed to 
promise a winding way almost into the very midst 
of the herd. We watched intently for his reappear- 
ance. In such periods of suspense the minutes seem 
strangely long, creeping as slowly toward their 
allotted three-score as they do when one, at a sick- 
bed vigil, listens for the funeral chimes of the clock, 
telling when the minutes are buried in the hours. 

At length, in the far away distance, we descried 
Shamus, disdaining further concealment, riding gal- 
lantly out of the ravine for a charge. A few mo- 
ments more and game and hunter were face to face, 
and we held our breath, expecting to see the dark 
cloud dash away with our bloodthirsty cook at 
its skirts. "As I am alive," suddenly ejaculated 
Muggs, '* Dobeen 's coming this way, at a bloody 
good run, and the buffalo after him ! " We could 
scarcely believe our eyes, but, sure enough, it was a 
clear case of pursuer and pursued, with the appro- 
priate positions entirely reversed, Shamus seemed 
imitating that famous hunter who brought home his 
bear-meat alive, preceding it by only half a coat-tail. 
But the game before us was changing in appearance 



156 BUFFALO LAND. 

most wonderfully. It seemed bristling with un- 
usually long horns, and as we looked the dark cloud 
suddenly spread out into a fan-like shape, and we all 
cried, simultaneously, "Indians!" 

There they were, a party of our red brethren 
bearing rapidly down upon us in pursuit of Dobeen, 
Avhose arms and legs were playing like flails on his 
donkey's sides, with an appeal for speed which had 
evidently called into action all the reserves of that 
true conservative. 

Our part}^ would have sold out their interest in 
the plains for a bagatelle. Our whole outfit had 
whirled, like a weather-cock, and was pointing back 
to Hays. The Mexicans were already dodging in 
and out among their oxen, and firing their old mus- 
kets furiously, although the foe was yet a ftiir cannon- 
shot away. Shamus could not well have been in 
more danger from foes behind than he was from 
friends before ; indeed, he afterward said that ask- 
ina- deliverance from the latter made him almost for- 
get the former. 

The horses of both Sachem and Muggs ran away, 
taking a straight line for the distant town. This 
caused a general stampede on the part of all the 
other horses, much to the regret of their riders, who 
were thus cruelly prevented from a proper display of 
latent prowess in rendering protection to the wagons 
and our cook. From the former came a steady cannon- 
ade. Squirming like eels among their oxen, the Mexi- 
cans fired from under the animals' bellies, astride the 
tongue, from anywhere, indeed, that furnished a barri- 
cade between the distant Indians and themselves. 




"^illlMllii^^ MmAjj IIIHlM 



A PARLEY WITH SAVAGES. 159 

It is one of the remarkable tactics of this remark- 
able people, in military emergencies, that when they 
can not put distance between them and the enemy, 
they must substitute something else. A single trooper, 
on an open plain, could send a small army of them 
scampering oif, but let them get behind a barricade, 
and thc}^ will continue banging away with their old 
muskets until either the weapon bursts or ammuition 
gives out. It is surprising how harmless their fusil- 
lades generally are. If ^Mexican powder is used, it 
goes oif like a mixture of lamp-black and nitro- 
glycerine, with a premonitory fiz and then a fearful 
concussion, leaving a smell of burnt oil in the air 
which overcomes for a moment the natural aroma of 
the warriors themselves. 

But while we were still being run away with by 
our spirited animals, another change occurred in the 
situation equally as unexpected as the first. The In- 
dians had stopped running about the time that we com- 
menced, and now stood in a dusk}' line something less 
than half a mile oif, making signs to us. Shamus 
evidently considered it a horrible incantation for his 
scalp, and every time he looked backward plied with 
renewed fervor at his donkey's ribs. Our guide, who 
had stayed with the wagons and exerted himself to 
silence the Mexican batteries, motioned us to return, 
which we were finally enabled to do by virtue of 
steady pulling upon one rein and coming back in half 
circles. 

By the time our cook reached us, out of breath 
and perspiring terribly, two savages had rid- 
den out from their band, weaponless, and were 



160 BUFFALO LAND. 

now gesturing a wish to communicate. The Pro- 
fessor and our guide rode to meet them, ap- 
parently unarmed ; but with characteristic exhibition 
of the white man's subtlety, the tail-pocket of the 
philosopher's coat held a pistol in reserve, and the 
guide, I have no doubt, was equally well provided. 



CHAPTER XI. 

WHITE WOLF, THE CHEYENNE CHIEF — HUNGRY INDIANS — RETURN TO HAYS — A 
CHEYENNE WAR PARTY — THE PIPE OF PEACE — THE COUNCIL CHAMDER — WHITE 
wolf's speech, as rendered by sachem THE WHITE MAN'S WIGWAM. 

ABOUT midway between our party and the 
dusky group that stood watching us the four 
embassadors met. The Indians proved to be a band 
of Cheyennes, under White Wolf, or, as he is more 
frequently called, Medicine Wolf, out on the war- 
path against the Pawnees. The Wolf was a fine- 
looking man, six feet four in height, straight as 
an arrow, and developed like a giant. Being a chief, 
he possessed the regalia and warranty deed of one, 
consisting of a ragged military coat without any tail, 
and a dirty letter from some Indian agent, with a lie 
in it over which even a Cheyenne must have smiled, 
telling how White Wolf loved the whites. Perhaps 
he did ; his namesake loves spring lamb. 

Our guide was an indiiferent interpreter, but had 
no difficulty in understanding that the Indians were 
hungry and wished something to eat. In all my ex- 
perience from that day to this I have never found an 
Indian who was not hungry, except once. The ex- 
ception was an old fellow who, although enough of an 
Indian to be habituallv drunk, was so de2,"enerate a 
specimen in other respects as to be somewhat dys- 
peptic. Plis stomach had repudiated, after receiving 

(161) 



162 BUFFALO LAND. 

a deposit from a trader of one hundred pickled 
oysters, and had temporarily closed its doors. His 
stock of gastric juices seemed to have been well-nigh 
bankrupted by a fifty years' discounting of jerked 
buffalo. The one hundred tons of this comj^ound which 
the noble warrior had dissolved would have exhausted 
the liquid of a tannery. Let these savages of the 
plains meet a white man, whenever or wherever they 
may, their first demand is always for meat and drink, 
followed not unfrequently by another for his scalp. 
The victim may have but a day's rations, and be a 
hundred miles from any station where more can be 
obtained, but his all is taken as greedily and remorse- 
lessly as if he commanded a commissary train. 

The Professor and our guide motioned White Wolf 
and his companion to wait, and rode back to us for 
the purpose of casting up our account of ways and 
means. The only chance of balancing it seemed to 
be by sight draft on Shamus' wagon or an entry of 
war. We dare not refuse them and go on ; they 
would be sure to dog our steps, and at the first con- 
venient opportunity attack and probably murder us. 
Shamus, with recovered courage, stoutly protested 
against a raid upon his department. *' To think," he 
expostulated, "of the swate sausage and ham bein' 
used to wad such painted carcasses as them divils ! " 
The guide suggested as the best alternative that we 
should invite the Indians to return with us to Hays. 
We caught at the idea and adopted it immediately ; 
and while the guide rode back as the bearer of our 
invitation, we "stood to arms," awaiting the result 
with silent but ill-concealed solicitude. 



MOMENTS OF SUSPENSE. 163 

Should the Indians consider it an attempt to trap 
them, our bones might have an opportunity to rest in 
some neighboring ravine until the ready spades of 
some future geological expedition should disturb them, 
and we should be reconstructed into some rare species 
of ancient ape or specimens of extinct salamanders. 
Or, if happily resurrected at a somewhat earlier 
period, might not some enterprising Barnum of the 
twentieth century place on our bones the seal of cen- 
turies, and lay them with the mummies in his show- 
cases ? Our expedition was partly intended for diving 
into the past, but not quite so deep or so permanent a 
dive as that. What wonder that incipient ague-chills 
played up and down and all about our spinal column, 
as Ave reflected how completely we were dependent on 
the caprice of those Native Americans sitting out 
there, in half-naked dignity, on their tough ponies ? 
Or that we gazed anxiously at the huge chief as he 
sat, silent and motionless, awaiting the approach of 
our guide ? 

Our ideas of the savage had been so thoroughly 
Cooperised during boyhood, that when our guide ap- 
proached the Wolf, and, with a gesture to the south, 
invited him back to Hays, I was prepared to see the 
tall form straighten in the saddle, and pictured to my 
imagination some such specimen of untutored elo- 
quence as this : 

"Pale-face, the blood of the Cheyenne burns quick. 
He meets you trailing like a serpent across his war- 
path, seeking to steal treasures from the red man's 
land. He asks food, and you tell him to come into 



164 BUPFALO LAND. 

3^0111* trap and get it. Pale-faces, remove your hats ; 
noble Che^^ennes, remove their scalps ! " 

Nothing of this kind occurred, however. Our guide 
informed us that the bold savage simply fastened one 
button of his tailless coat, grunted out " Ugh ! " in a 
satisfied way, and motioned his band to follow. This 
they did, and we were soon retracing our steps to 
Hays ; by the guide's advice, making the savages 
keep a fair distance behind us. 

The roofs of Plays glistened across the plains, as 
they say those of Damascus do in the East. We had 
formed a boy's romantic acquaintance with that land, 
where the sun burns and the simooms frolic, and once 
were quite enamored of its wild Bedouins of the de- 
sert. Our manhood was now experiencing the sensa- 
tion of seeing a tribe fiercer than their eastern breth- 
ren, not exactly at our doors, because we had none, 
but following very closely at our heels. 

As our strange cavalcade re-entered the town the 
people stopped to gaze a moment, and then came out 
to meet us. JS^ews flew to the fort, and some of the 
officers rode over. The Land Company's office was 
selected for a council room, the Cheyennes tying their 
ponies to the stage corral near. The Indians were a 
strange-looking crew. Sachem declared them all wo- 
men, and Dobeen affirmed that they looked more like 
a covey of witches than warriors. With their long 
hair divided in the middle, and falling, some in 
braids and others loosely, over their shoulders, and 
their blankets hanging around them, they did really 
look much like the traditional squaw who so kindly 
assists one in cutting his eye-teeth at Xiagara Falls, 



THE PERSONNEL OF OUR VISITORS. 165 

with her sharp practice and cheap bead-work. Their 
faces were as smooth as a woman's, withont the least 
trace of either mustache or whiskers ; so that, alto- 
gether, when we essayed to pick out some females, we 
got completely " mixed up," and were at length forced 
to the conclusion that the majestic White Wolf 
was traveling over the plains with a copper-colored 
liarem. 

Cooper having told us that the Indian term of re- 
proach is to be or to look like a woman, we avoided 
offense and the " arrows of outrageous fortune " 
which an Indian is so dexterous in using, and gained 
the information desired by addressing a direct inquiry 
to White Wolf, through the interpreter, whether he 
had any squaws along. lie replied by hohling up 
two fingers and pointing out the couple thus designa- 
ted. We tried to find, first in their features and then 
in their clothing, some distinguishing characterstic, 
but found it impossible ; so that when they changed 
positions an instant afterward, I was entirely at a 
loss to recognize them again. 

A\\ had extremely uninviting countenances, any 
one of which would have sufficed to hang three ordi- 
nary men, and a common villainy made them as 
much alike as forty-six nutmegs. White Wolf alone 
differed in appearance. He was stoutly built, as well 
as tall and straight, with broad features, the bronze 
of his complexion merging almost into white, and he 
smiled pleasantly and readily. The others were no 
more able to smile than Satan himself, the expression 
which their faces assumed when attempting it being 
simply diabolical. Dobeen was so startled by one 



166 BUFFALO LAND. 

who tried that contortion on and asked for " tobac," 
that he retreated in disorder from the council-cham- 
ber. 

White Wolf and the more important members of 
his band took the chairs proifered them, and sat in a 
circle, the Professor, Sachem, and two leading citizens 
of Hays being sandwiched in at proper intervals. 
The object of the gathering was gravely announced 
to be that the Indians might smoke the pipe of peace 
with the towns-people. As war was a chronic pas- 
sion with these wild horsemen of the plains, none of 
them had ever been near the place in friendly mood 
before, and the novelty of the occasion, therefore, 
brought the entire population around the building. 
The postmaster of Hays, Mr. Hall, had once traded 
among the Cheyennes and, understanding their sign- 
language, acted as interpreter. This curious race has 
two distinct ways of conversing — one by mouth, in a 
singularly unmusical dialect, and the other by mo- 
tions or signs with the hands. The latter is that 
most generally understood and employed by scouts 
and traders. 

One of the Indians now took from a sack a red-clay 
pipe, with a ridiculously long bowl and longer shank, 
and inserted into it a three-foot stem, profusely orna- 
mented with brass tacks and a tassel of painted 
horse hair. This was handed to White Wolf, together 
with a small bag of tobacco, in which the Killikinnick 
leaves had been previously crumbled and mixed. 
These were a bright red, evidently used for their 
fragrance, as they only weakened the tobacco without 
adding any particular flavor. We were struck with 



THE PROFESSOR IN A DILEMMA. 169 

the Indian mode of smoking. The chief took a few 
quick whiffs, emitting the fumes with a hoarse blow- 
ing like a miniature steam-engine. He then passed 
it, mouth-piece down so that the saliva might escape, 
and it commenced a slow journey around the circle. 
When it reached our worthy professor he found him- 
self in a sore dilemma. Xo smoke had ever curled 
along the roof of his mouth, or made a chimney of 
his geological nose. For an instant the philosopher 
hesitated ; then, reflecting that passing the pipe would 
be worse than choking over it, the excellent man 
put the stem to his mouth and gave a pull which 
must have filled the remotest corner of his lungs 
with Killikinnick. Gasping amid the stifling cloud, 
it poured from both mouth and nose, and called on 
the way at his stomach, which gave unmistakable 
symptoms of distress. We feared that he would be 
forced to forsake the council, but, with an effort worthy 
of the occasion and himself, he kept his seat, and 
opening wide his mouth, waited patiently until the 
fiend of smoke had withdrawn from his interior its 
trailing garments. 

The council disappointed us. In Wliite Wolf we 
had found as fine-looking an Indian as ever murdered 
and stole upon his native continent. His people were 
first in war, first to break peace, and the last to keep 
it, their excuse being that the white man trespassed 
on their hunting grounds. We had rather expected 
that burly form to rise from his seat, and, with flash- 
ing eyes, utter then and there a flood of aboriginal 
eloquence : " White man, your people live where the 

sun rises, ours where it sets. When did you ever 
9 



170 BUFFALO LAND. 

come to us hungry and be fed, or clothed and go 
away so," and so on ad infinitum. Instead of all 
this there was a tremendous smoking and grunting, 
more like a farmer's fumigation of hogs than one of 
those pipe-of-peace councils which I had so often 
studied on canvas and in books. I have often re- 
gretted since that our aborigines can not read. If 
they could only learn from the white man's literature 
what they ought to be, the contrast between it and 
what they really are would be so violent that it 
might make an impression, even upon an Indian. 

For a happy mingling of lies and truth our " big 
talk " could hardly be excelled. A reporter could 
have taken down the proceedings somewhat as fol- 
lows : 

Scene — Six Indians and as many white men in a 
ring. Postmaster Hall in the center, acting as inter- 
preter. 

Indian — "Cheyenne love white man much (lie). 
Forty-six warriors all hungry ( truth ). Us good In- 
dians" ( lie ). And so on, alternately. 

Fale Brother — " White man love Cheyenne, Got 
lots of food, but no whisky " (the latter a lie which 
almost choked the speaker). 

It would not interest the reader to know all the re- 
petitions or nonsense uttered, and w^e spare him the 
infliction of even attempting to tell him. The In- 
dians had for their object food, and they got it. The 
whites had for their object permanent peace, and did 
not get it. 

Indue time the council broke up, and in an incredibly 
short time thereafter many of the Indians were reel- 







WHITE WOLF AT HOME. 
' The red man is noble, big injun is me." 



WHITE AVOLF S SPEECH IX VEESE. 173 

ing drunk. That White Wolf did not become equally 
overcome was owing solely to his being a man of iron 
constitution. Any thing but metal, it seemed to me, 
must have been burnt out by the fiery draughts which 
we saw the noble chief take down. A tin cupful of 
"whisk," such as would have made the cork in a bot- 
tle tight, was tossed off without a wink. 

Sachem, who took notes, rendered White Wolf's 
speech at the council in verse, as follows : 

"White brother, have pity ; the "White Wolf is poor, 
The skin of his belly is shrunk to his back ; 

A gallon of whisky is good for a cure, 

If followed by plenty of " bacon and tack." 

The red man is noble, big Injun is me : 
Like berries all crimson and ready to pick, 

The scalps on my pole are a heap good to see — 
Good medicine they when poor Injun is sick. 



The red man is truth, and the white one is lies; 

The first suffers wrong at hand of the other ; 
The way they skin us is good for sore eyes, 

The way we skin them astonishing, rather. 

They rob us of guns and offer us plows, 
And tell us to farm it, to go into corn ; 

We 're good to raise hair, and good to raise rows, 
And good to raise essence of corn — in a horn. 

Go back to your cities and leave us our home. 

Or off with your scalp and that remnant of shirt ; 

Go, let the poor Injun in happiness roam, 
And live on his buffalo, puppies, and dirt. 



174 BUFFALO LAND. 

Two or three of the Indians mounted their ponies 
and took a race through the streets. The animals were 
thin, despondent brutes, but as wiry as if their hides 
were stuffed, like patent mattresses, full of springs. 
The Indians, as is their universal custom, mounted 
from the right side, instead of the left as we do. At 
the lower end of the street they got as nearly in line 
as their inebriated condition would permit, and when 
the word was given set oif toward us with frightful 
shouts, which made the ponies scamper like so many 
frightened cats. 

The animal which came out ahead had no rider 
to claim the honors, that blanketed jockey having 
fallen off midway. He was now sitting on his hams, 
looking the wrong way down the track, and evi- 
dently adding up the " book" which he had made 
for the race. As he soon arose, with a dissatisfied 
grunt, we thought his figures probably read about 
as follows : 

Given — A gallon of Hays whisky in the saddle, 
and a race-horse under it. Endeavor to divide the 
latter by a rawhide whip, and the result is a sore- 
headed Indian, who stands forfeit to his peers for 
"the drinks."' 

As we wandered back to the council-chamber, the 
scene there had changed somewhat. White Wolf 
had been transformed into a cavalry colonel, and 
was strutting around with two gilt eagles on his 
broad shoulders, looking fully as important as many 
a real colonel whom we have caught in his pin 
feathers and, withal, much more of the hero. Our 
warrior had seen some of the officers from the fort 



IXDIAN WHIPS. 175 

strolling around, and straightway fell to coveting liis 
neighbors' straps, which observing, Sachem at once 
purchased from a store the emblems of i")ower and 
pinned them upon him. He whispered to us that 
when White Wolf took his first step as a colonel, it 
had been accompanied by a snort of pain, the unlucky 
slipping of a pin having evidently conveyed to the 
chief the idea that one of the eagles had grasped 
his shoulder in its talons. 

The chief modestly requested similar honors for 
his "papoose," and that individual was treated to the 
straps of a captain. A different application of strap, 
it occurred to me, would have seemed more proper 
upon the six feet of unpromising humanity which 
appeared above the "papoose's" moccasins. 

It had been a matter of surprise to us how the 
Indians could make such inferior looking stock as 
theirs capable of such speed and extraordinary jour- 
neys ; but it ceased to excite our wonder after an 
examination of their whips. These ingenious instru- 
ments of torture have handles, which in form and 
size resemble a policeman's club. To one end are 
attached some thongs of thick leather, half a yard in 
length, and to the other a loop of the same material, 
just large enough to go over the hand and bind 
slightly on the wrist. Dangling from the latter, the 
handle can be instantly grasped, and the body of 
thongs brought down on the pony's skin, with a 
crack like a flail on the sheaves, and the result is 
what Sachem called an astonishing "shelling out" 
of speed. 

We explained to White Wolf that Tammany 



176 BUFFALO LAND. 

Sachem was one of many great chiefs who had a 
mighty wigwam in the big city of the pale-faces, far 
away toward the rising sun ; that they were all good 
men, and never lied like the chiefs of the Cheyennes, 
or took any thing belonging to others ; and that their 
women, instead of carrying heavy burdens, spent all 
their time in distributing the money and goods of the 
big wigwam to the needy. 

White Wolf signified, through the interpreter, 
that such a wigwam was too good for earth, and 
ought to be pitched on the happy hunting grounds 
as soon as possible. 

Sachem thought the savage meant to be sarcastic. 



CHAPTER XII. 

ARMS OF A WAR PARTY — A DONKEY PRESENT EATING POWERS OF THE NOMADS 

8ATAXTA, HIS CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT RUNNING OFF WITH A GOVERNMENT 

HERD — DAUB, OCR ARTIST — ANTELOPE CHASE BY A GREYHOUND. . 

AT our request White Wolf and two of his braves 
gave us a disphiy of their skill — or rather, 
their strength — in the use of their bows, shooting 
their arrows at a stake sixty yards off. The efforts 
were what would be called good " line shots," 
although missing the slender stick. We then es- 
sayed a trial with the chief's bow^, which was an 
exceedingly stout hickory wrapped in sinew, but we 
found that more practiced strength than ours was 
required even to bend it. Some amusement was 
created when the first of our party took up the bow, 
by the haste with which a small and unusually ugly 
Indian retreated from the foreground as if fearing 
that an arrow might be accidentally sent through 
his blanket. 

Among the stock which the savages had brought 
with them was a long-eared, diminutive brute, scar- 
cely higher than a table, and apparently forming the 
connecting link between a jackass rabbit and a don- 
key. This animal White Wolf seemed extremely 
anxious to present to the Professor, but it was 

(177) 



178 BUFFALO LAND. 

politely declined, by the advice of the interpreter, 
who explained to us that a return gift of the don- 
key's weight in sugar and coffee would be expected. 
IS'^otwithstanding the stringency of the law forbid- 
ding the sale of whisky and ammunitions to the 
Indians, the savages found little difficulty in filling 
themselves with fire-water, and also got a little powder. 
White Wolf went off with his pocket full of car- 
tridges in exchange for some Indian commodities, 
but the cunning pale face rendered them of little 
value by selecting ammunition a size too small for 
the gun. 

The eating powers of these nomacV? are marvelous. 
We saw the chief, inside of two hours, devour three 
hearty dinners, one of which was gotten up from our 
own larder and was both good and plentiful. As he 
did full justice to every invitation to eat and drink, 
we concluded tliat he would continue to accept during 
the whole afternoon, if the opportunity were only 
offered him. What a capital minister to England 
was here wasting his gastric juices on the desert 
air! If Grreat Britain should continue her hesitation 
to digest our Alabama claims, the wolf at their door 
would digest enough roast beef to bring them to 
terms or starvation. Sugar, coffee, spices, pickles, 
sardines, ham, and many another luxury of civiliza- 
tion, were alike welcome at the capacious portal of 
the untutored savage. Dobeen discovered him eat- 
ing a can of our condensed milk under the impres- 
sion that it was a sweet porridge. 

Their entertainment at the town being concluded, 
the Indians were conducted over to the fort and 



A QUESTION CONCEEXIXG CIRCULATIOX. 179 

some rations given them. They manifested an 
especial fondness for sugar, but took any thing they 
could get, their ponies j) roving capable of carrying 
an unlimited number of sacks. It seemed as difficult 
to overload these animals as it is a Broadway omni- 
bus; and their riders, perhaps in order to avoid be- 
ing top heavy, took freight for the inside whenever 
opportunity offered. As they came back through the 
town, we all turned out to see them off. The band 
promised us peace, notwithstanding which it was no 
small satisfaction to discover that they were poorly 
armed. Bows and arrows were the only weapons 
which all possessed, and while a few had revolvers, 
the chief alone sported a rifle, a rusty-looking old 
breech-loader. 

As our late cavalry escort rode off, their attitudes 
plainly bespoke that they had been raiding upon 
more than the flesh-pots of Egypt. Sons of the sandy- 
complexioned desert, w^e saw several of them kiss 
their mother before they got out of sight. The most 
serious question with us now was whether or not these 
red gormandizers had been uttering peace notes not 
properly indorsed by their hearts. The trouble is 
that when one discovers a circulation- of this kind, 
his own ceases about the same instant, and his bones 
become a fixed investment in the fertile soil of the 
plains. 

One of the officers of the fort told us an amusing 
instance of the impudent treachery of which the 
western Indians of to-day are sometimes guilty, A 
year or tw^o before, when Hancock comn^anded the 
Department and was encamped near Fort Dodge, on 



180 BUFFALO LAND. 

the Arkansas, Satanta and his band of Kiowas came 
in. This chief has always been known as very hos- 
tile to the whites, usually being the first of his tribe 
to commence hostilities. He was the very embodi- 
ment of treachery, ferocity, and bravado. Phreno- 
logically considered, his head must have been a cra- 
nial marvel, and the bumps on it mapping out the 
kingdom of evil a sort of Rocky Mountain chain 
towering over the more peaceful valleys around. 
Viewed from the towering peaks of combativeness 
and acquisitiveness the territory of his past would 
reveal to the phrenologist an untold number of gov- 
ernment mules, fenced in by sutler's stores, while 
bending over the bloody trail leading back almost 
to his bark cradle, would be the shades of many 
mothers and wives, searching among the wrecks of 
emigrant trains for flesh of their flesh and bone of 
their bone. 

Satanta was long a name on the plains to hate and 
abhor. He was an abject beggar in the pale faces' 
camp and a demon on their trail. On the occasion in 
question he came to Gren. Hancock with protestations 
of friendship, and, although these were not believed, 
he was treated precisely as if they had been. To 
gratify his love of finery an old military coat with 
general's stars, said to be one that Hancock himself 
had cast off, was presented him. By some means he 
also acquired a bugle, and the garrison were greatly 
amused for the remainder of the day by seeing 
Satanta galloping back and forth before his band, 
blowing his bugle and parading his coat, the warriors 
all cheering the old cut-throat and proud as himself 



sataxta's last atrocity. 181 

of the display. The way he handled that bugle, 
however, before the next morning was by no means 
so amusino". 

Some time before dawn the sleepy garrison were 
aroused by the thunders of a stock stampede, and out 
of the darkness came the clatter of hoofs, as Satanta 
and his band departed for the south with a goodly 
herd of government mules and horses. Pursuit was 
commenced at once, with the hope of cutting them off 
before they could get the stock across the Arkansas, 
then somewhat swollen. Just as the troops reached 
the bank of that stream, a major-general's uniform 
was seen going out of the water upon the other side. 
IN'otwithstanding its high rank fire was instantly 
opened upon it, but ineffectually. The savage turned 
a moment, blew a shrill, defiant blast upon his bugle, 
and galloped off in safety. Too much promotion 
made him mad. As a simple chief, he might have 
stolen some straggling teams ; as a major-general, he 
appropriated a whole herd. 

During the next eighteen months, Satanta had 
several encounters with the troops, generally wearing 
the major-general's coat and blowing his bugle. His 
last exploit, which brought the long hesitating sword 
of justice upon his head, is too fresh and too painful 
to be soon forgotten. A few months ago the savage 
chief was living with his people on a reserve in the 
Indian Territory and being fed by the government. 
Gathering a few of his warriors he stole forth, and, 
crossing the Texas border, surprised a wagon train, 
murdered the teamsters, and drove off the mules. 
Fortunately, Gen. Sherman, in his examination of 



182 • BUFFALO LAND. 

frontier posts, happened to be near the scene of mur- 
der, and at once ordered troops in pursuit. They 
were still trailing the marauders when Satanta re- 
turned to the reservation at Fort Sill," and with bold 
effrontery begotten of long immunity, actually boasted 
of the crime before the Quaker agent. "I did it," 
said he, " and if any other chief says it was him, tell 
him he lies. I am the man." Gen. Sherman had 
just arrived, and when Satanta, with a number of 
minor chiefs who were with him on the raid, came 
into the fort to trade and visit, they were seized and 
bound, and started for Texas under a strong- o-uard, 
to be tried by the authorities there. On the way one 
of the Indians in some manner loosened his bands, 
and seizing the musket of the guard nearest him, 
shot the soldier in the shoulder, but before he could 
do further harm the other guards fired, and the 
savage rolled from the wagon down upon the plain, 
apparently dead. The body was afterward found 
close by the road-side in a position which showed that 
after falling the savage had enough of vitality left to 
enable him to crawl with bloody hands for several 
yards. Finding the life-tide ebbing fast, he had then 
placed his body in position toward the rising sun, com- 
posed his arms by his side and, with Indian stoicism, 
yielded up his breath. The remainder of the party, 
including Satanta, were brought safely to Texas, tried, 
and sentenced to be hanged. 

Our adventure with White Wolf and his band 
obliged us, of course, to pass another night in Hays. 
We spent a most pleasant hour during the evening 
in the ofiice of Dr. John Moore, an old resident of 



ANOTHER START. 183 

Plattsburg, N. Y., who assisted us materially in select- 
ing medical stores, and who by his genial disposition 
endeared himself to our entire party, so that when 
we heard of his sad fate soon afterward, it seemed as 
if death had crouched by our own camp-fire. Should 
the Indians become troublesome, there was some 
talk at the fort, he now informed us, of organizing 
a company for Oi:)erations against them, composed 
of buffalo hunters and scouts under the lead of regular 
officers, and in this case it was his purpose to accom- 
pany it in the capacity of a surgeon. As good guns 
were difficult to obtain there, and we had some extra 
weapons, one of our party loaned the doctor an im- 
proved Henry rifle and holster revolvers. Before we 
again heard of him, he had crossed that shadowy line 
Avhich winds between the tombs and habitations of 
men, and his name was added to the drearily long 
list which bears for its heading — " Killed by In- 
dians." 

Commencing with those first entries after the May- 
flower introduced our fathers to savage audience, and 
chiseling separately each name on a marble mile- 
stone, the white witnesses would girdle the earth. 

Sunrise next morning saw us again moving north- 
ward, fully determined that no body of Indians, un- 
less comprising the whole Cheyenne nation, should 
force us back again. We had met the red man on 
his native heath and familiarity had bred contempt. 
All were in excellent spirits and felt the braver, per- 
haps, because our late visitors had assured us that 
their tribe was on the war-path against the Pawnees, 
and meant only peace with the whites. 



184 BUFFALO LAXD. 

Our party left Hays the second time with quite an 
acquisition. On the eve of starting we had been ap- 
proached by an artist, who begged permission to ac- 
company us. We assented on the instant. An artist 
was, of all others, the thing w^e needed. How in- 
teresting it would be to have the thrilling incidents 
of the comino' months sketched bv our artist on the 
spot. ''Daub" was a fine-looking fellow, with peaked 
hat, peaked beard, and peaked mustache ; in short, 
was of the genuine artist cut, of the kind that are 
always sitting around on the stones in romantic places 
and getting married to heiresses. 

During the day we saw many varieties of the cac- 
tus, some of them very beautiful. As we had no regu- 
lar botanist with our expedition, Mr. Colon developed 
a taste in that direction, and secured and deposited 
several fine specimens which were carefully laid away 
in Shamus' wagon. It was not long before that ex- 
cellent Irishman gave a prolonged howl, the cause of 
which he did not A^ouchsafe to tell us, but as we saw 
him cautiously rubbing his pantaloons we siu-mised 
that he had rolled or sat down upon a choice variety. 
The remainder of the plants he must, with still 
greater caution, have dropped overboard, as none 
could subsequently be found for boxing. If the truth 
must be said, I was not at all sorry for it. I had 
lent a hand in obtaining an unusually large cactus, 
but the loan was returned in such damaged condition 
that I lost all interest at once. The minute needles 
which nature has scattered over these plants will 
pierce a glove readily, and burrow in the flesh like 



THE GEEYHOUXD IX ACTION. 185 

trichina. The cactus may be set down as Dame Na- 
ture's pin-cushions. 

Endless prairie-dog villages covered the country, 
and occasionally cayotes, about the size of setters, 
with brushy, fox-like tails, started out of ravines and 
ran off with a hang-dog sort of look, stopping occa- 
sionally to see if they were being pursued. Our guide 
ran one of these down with his horse and it was al- 
most with sympathy that we watched the tired wolf, 
when he found running useless, dodging between the 
horse's legs, rendering the rider's aim false. It was 
finally dispatched by a greyhound. The latter de- 
served his name only from courtesy of species, as his 
color was inky black. He belonged to one of our 
hostlers, who got him from a Mexican train-master, 
and was a wonderful fighter. I saw him afterward 
in combats with not only the cayote, but Mitli the 
large timber wolf, and in every instance he came off 
the victor. In one instance, I remember, he whipped 
the combined curs of a railroad tie camp, making 
every antagonist take to his heels. Very nearly as 
high as a table, with powerful chest and immense 
spring, the hound's movements were like flashes 
of light. He danced round and over his foe, his 
fangs clicking like a steel trap, first on one side and 
now on the other, and again, ere his enemy had closed 
its jaws on the shadow in front, he was at its rear. 
I have seen a gray wolf bleeding and helpless, and 
the hound untouched, after a half hour's combat. 

On the north fork of Big Creek we frightened a 
dozen antelopes out of the brakes, and had a fine 
opportunity of witnessing a chase by the hound which 



186 BUFFALO LAND. 

alone was worth a journey to the plains to see. I 
remember having been very much interested, when a 
boy, in reading accounts of gazelle hunting in the 
Orient, where hawks and dogs are both used. The 
former pounce down from the air on the fleet-footed 
victim's head, compelling it to stop every few mo- 
ments to shake its unwelcome passenger off, and the 
dogs are thus enabled to overtake it. This always 
seemed to me a cowardly sort of sport. The harm- 
less victim of the chase, who can not touch the earth 
without its turning tell-tale to the keen-scented pur- 
suer, should not be robbed of his only refuge, speed, 
or the pursuit becomes butchery. 

The American antelope upon our plains is what 
the gazelle is upon those of Africa. Timid and fleet, 
it often detects and avoids danger to which its pow- 
erful neighbor, the buifalo, falls a victim. The group 
which we had frightened bounded away with an elas- 
ticity as if nature had furnished them hoofs and joints 
of rubber. There was no apparent effort in their mo- 
tion, and we imagined larger powers in reserve than 
really existed. As the greyhound slowly gained 
upon them, we noticed this, and the Professor there- 
upon delivered what Sachem aptly styled a running- 
discourse. 

" Gentlemen, poetry of motion, perhaps by poeti- 
cal license, gives exaggerated ideas of force. A 
smooth-running engine, though taxed to its utmost 
capacity, seems capable of accomplishing more, while 
its wheezing neighbor, groaning and straining as if 
on the verge of dissolution, has abundant powers in 
reserve. Some Hercules may lift a weight on which 



AN ANTELOPE CHASE. 187 

a straw more would seem to him large enough to sus- 
tain the traditional drowning man. The feat marks 
itself by a life-long backache, but, if he has performed 
it gracefully, he bears with it a reputation for a fab- 
ulous reserve of power, the exhibition seeming but 
the safety valve to his supposed giant forces strug- 
gling for expression." 

Our learned friend seldom found us less attentive 
than then. All the wagons were stopped, and from 
every elevation upon them we looked out over the 
solitudes at the race going on before us. Pursuer and 
pursued were pitting against each other the same 
quality — speed. There was no lying in ambush or 
taking unawares. The fleetest-footed of game was 
flying before the swiftest of dogs. There could be 
no trailing, as these hounds run only by sight. What 
a straining of muscles ! The low ridge barely lifting 
the animals against the horizon, their legs, from rap- 
idity of motion, were invisible, and the bodies, for a 
short space, seemed floating in air. It was one short, 
black line, running rapidly into twelve gray ones, 
these latter resolving occasionally into as many balls 
of white cotton, when the pufl*y, rabbit-like tails of the 
antelopes were turned toward us. Two of the best 
mounted horsemen from our party had started with 
the chase, but seemed scarcely moving, so rapidly 
were they left behind. 

Twice we thought the hound had closed, but in- 
stantly succeeding views showed daylight still be- 
tween, although the narrow strip was being blotted 
out with the same regular certaintv with which the 

dark slide of the magic lantern seizes the figures on 
10 



188 BUFFALO LAND. 

the wall. Down into a ravine, and out of sight they 
passed, and we were fearing i\\Q finale would be hid- 
den, when they came into view on the opposite side 
and pressed up the bank. The bounds of the hound 
were magnificent, and we all gave a cry of admira- 
tion, as with a splendid effort he liiunched himself 
like a black ball upon the herd. In an instant after 
we saw him hurled back and taking a very unvic- 
tor-like roll down the hill. He quickly recovered, 
however, and fastened on an antelope which seemed 
lao-o-ino- behind. His first selection, the leader of the 
herd, had proved an unfortunate one, and he bore 
a bruise for some time wdiere the buck had struck 
him with his horns. 

The second seizure turned out to be a doe, and 
was quite dead when we reached it. The victor was 
lying along side, looking very much as if one ante- 
lope hunt a day was sufficient for even a greyhound. 
We noticed that the hair was rubbed off from the 
doe's sides by its struggles, and on passing our hands 
over the neck found that its coarse coat parted from 
the skin at a slight touch. This peculiarity in the 
antelope is very marked. In a subsequent hunt I 
once saw a wounded buck plunge forward, roll along 
the ground for a few feet, and then run off with the 
bare skin along his entire side showing just where 
he had struck the earth. 

One of our party produced a knife, and the animal 
was bled and the entrails taken out. We seemed 
destined to have a mishap with every adventure, and 
had already learned to expect such sequences, the 
only question being whose turn should come next. 



CYXOCEPHALUS OX THE RAMPAGE. 189 

This time it proved to be Semi-Colon's. We were a 
mile from the wagons, and Semi's horse, being con- 
sidered the most thoroughly broken, was nominated 
to bear the game to them. To this proceeding Cyno- 
cephalus seemed in nowise indisposed, quietly sub- 
mitting to the management of one of the hostlers and 
our guide, as they lashed the antelope across his 
back, securing it to the rear of the large Texas saddle 
with the powerful straps which always hang there 
for purposes of this kind. This accomplished, Semi 
climbed into the saddle, gave a click and a kick, and 
set his steed in motion. That eccentric assemblage 
of bones made one spasmodic step forward, which 
brought the bloody, hairy carcass with a swing 
af>-ainst his loins. 

What a change that touch produced ! Those wasted 
nostrils emitted a terrific snort, the stiif stump-tail 
jerked upward like the lever of a locomotive, and 
with a dart Cynoccphalus was off across the plains. 
He probably imagined that some beast of prey had 
coveted his spare-ribs, and was whetting its teeth on 
the vantage-ground of his backbone. Occasionally 
the frightened animal would slack up and indulge in 
a fit of kicking, looking back meanwhile with terror 
at the object fastened upon his hide, then plunge 
frantically forward again. The antelope stuck to 
the saddle for some time, but not so Semi-Colon. 
The first of these irregular proceedings caused that 
young man, as Sachem expressed it, " to get off upon 
his head." Cynoccphalus finally burst his saddle- 
girths, and we w^ere obliged to furnish other trans- 
portation for our game. 



190 BUFFALO LAND. 

Let me say, en jtassant, that I am trying to chron- 
icle minutely the events which befel our half-scien- 
tific, half-sporting, and somewhat incongruous party 
on its trip through Buifalo Land ; and, although my 
readers may think us particularly unfortunate, we 
really suffered no more than amateurs usually do. 
My object is to set up guide boards at the dangerous 
places, that other travelers may avoid the pitfalls 
and the perils into which we fell. And to every 
amateur hunter we beg to offer this advice : Never 
tie dead game upon a strange horse unless you owe 
the rider a grudge. 

" Young men," said the Doctor, from his saddle, 
"you have seen a beautiful illustration in the theory 
of development. The hound and the antelope may 
have been originally an oyster and a worm. From 
their first slow motion, when one only opened its 
jaws to seize the other, they have progressed until 
the speed of to-day results. Should the hound ever 
become wild, and pursuit and flight change to an 
every-day matter instead of a holiday-sport, develop- 
ment would still continue. A giraffe-like antelope, 
with the speed of the wind, would fly before a hound 
the size of a stag." The Doctor's "clinic," as 
Sachem called it, was suddenly cut short at this 
point by a struggle for mastery between himself and 
the human spirit concealed in his horse. 

"How much," exclaimed the Professor, when Py- 
thagoras had at length come off triumphant, and we 
again moved forward — " How much the race that we 
have witnessed is like that we all run. Powerful and 
eager as the greyhound, man sees flying before him, 



THE PEOFESSOR MORALIZES. 191 

on the plain of life, objects which he thirsts to grasp. 
Taxing every muscle in pursuit, panting after it over 
the smooth country below the 40th mile post, he 
crosses there the ravine where rheumatism and 
straggling gray hairs lurk, and with these clinging 
to him, start up the hill of later life. Half-way to 
its summit, on which the three-score stone marking 
the down-hill grade looks uncomfortably like that 
over a tomb, he seizes the object of pursuit only to 
be flung back by it bruised. If of the proper metal, 
he falls only to rise again, and should the first wish 
be out of reach, fastens on one of its companions. 
There is where blood tells. If the least taint of cur 
is in it the first blow sends its recipient yelling to 
his kennel, there to whine for all that is left to him 
of life over bruised ribs," 

Muggs thought one toss was sufficient, and retreat 
then was prudence. If the bones on one side were 
broken, he saw no reason to expose the other. Dy- 
ing successful was only procuring meat for others to 
enjoy. 

The Professor was developing a remarkable talent 
for finding not only the stones of the past written all 
over with a wonderful and translatable history, but 
also the moral connected with each incident of our 
journey. Had any of us broken our necks he would 
doubtless have improved the occasion to draw a com- 
parison and have made it the text of a philosophic 
disquisition. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHARACTER OF THE PLAINS BUFFALO BILL AND HIS HORSE BRIGHAM THE GUIDE 

AND SCOUT OF ROMANCE CAYOTE VERSUS JACKASS-RABBIT A LAWYER-LIKE 

RESCUE OUR CAMP ON SILVER CREEK UNCLE SAM's BUFFALO HERDS TURKEY 

SHOOTING OUE FIRST MEAL ON THE PLAINS A GAME SUPPER. 

OUR trail was taking us west of north, and we ex- 
pected to reach the Saline about dusk and there 
encamp. The same strange evenness of country sur- 
rounded us. Over its surface, smooth and firm as a 
race track, we could drive a wagon or gallop a horse 
in any direction. Even the Bedouin has no such field 
for cavalry practice — his footing being shifting sand, 
while ours was the compact bufi'alo grass, so short 
that its existence at all could scarcely have been de- 
tected a few yards away. Sachem said he could think 
of no such cavalry field except that of his boyhood, 
when he slipped into the parlor and pranced his rock- 
ing-horse over the soft carpet; with which memory, 
he added, was coupled another, to the effect that 
while thus skirmishing on dangerous ground, his 
cavalry was attacked from the rear by heavy infantry 
and badly cut up. 

Numerous buffalo trails crossed our path, running 
invariably north and south. This is caused by the 
animals feeding from one stream to another, the water 
courses following the dip of the country's surface 

(192) 



PRE-HISTORIC RESTAURANTS. 193 

from west to east. Wallows were also very numer- 
ous, and wc noticed as a peculiarity of these, as well 
as the 2^aths, that the grass killed by treading and 
rolling does not renew itself when the spots are aban- 
doned. More than once on the Grand Prairie of 
Illinois I have seen these wallows, made before the 
knowledge of the white man, still remaining destitute 
of grass. 

An old bull who has been rolling when the walluw 
is muddy, is an interesting object. The clay plastered 
over and tangled in his shaggy coat bakes in the sun 
very nearly Avhite ; and tliis it was, probably, that 
gave rise to the early traditions of white butlfalo. 

AVherever on our route the rock cropped out along 
creeks or in ravines, it was the white magnesia lime- 
stone, and so soft as to be easily cut. Further west 
alternate pink and white veins occur, giving the stone 
a very beautiful appearance. We frequently found 
on the rocks and in the ravines deposits of very per- 
fect shells, apparently those of oysters. Sachem sug- 
gested that they marked the location of pre-historic 
restaurants — the Delmonicos of the olden time, say 
fifty thousand years before the Pharaohs were born. 
He thought it possible that some future quarry- 
man might blast out an oyster-knife and money pot 
of quaint coins. 

Muggs thought this patch of our continent resem- 
bled Australia — " Not that it is as rich, you know, 
but there's so much of it." He even became enthu- 
siastic enough to affirm that the land mi^ht be made 
profitable, " if some Hinglish sheep and 'eifers were 
put on it, you see." 



194 BUFFALO LAND, 

The Professor assured us that the country around 
us was equal to the plains of Lombardy in point of 
fertility, and as the soil was of great depth, and rich 
in the proper mineral properties, it would undoubt- 
edly become before 1890 the great wheat-producing 
region of the world. 

Our party fell into silence again, and, having noth- 
ing else to interest me at the moment, I resumed my 
study, which this episode had interrupted, of Buffalo 
Bill, our guide. Athletic and shrewd, he rode ahead 
of us with sinews of iron and eye ever on the alert, 
clad in a suit of buckskin. Plis mount was a tough 
roan pony which he had named Brigham and of 
which he seemed very fond. Nevertheless, this fond- 
ness did not prevent hard riding, and when I last saw 
Brigham, several months afterward, he was a very 
sorr}' -looking animal, insomuch that I concluded not 
to have his photograph taken as that of a model steed 
for Buffalo Land, as I once contemplated doing. 

It was extremely fortunate for us that we had 
secured Cody as guide. The whole western country 
bordering on the plains, as we afterward learned, 
from sorry experience, is infested with numberless 
charlatans, blazing with all sorts of hunting and 
fighting titles, and ready at the rustle of greenbacks 
to act as guides through a land they know nothing 
about. These reprobates delight in nothing so much 
as in telling thrilling tales of their escapes from In- 
dians, and chill the blood of their shivering pai-t}^ by 
pointing out spots where imaginary murders took 
place. Without compasses they would be as hope- 
lessly lost as needleless mariners. I have my doubts 



WANTED AT THE FRONT. 195 

if one-third of these terribly named bullies could tell, 
on a pinch, where the north star is. Unless they 
chanced to strike one of the Pacific lines which stretch 
across the plains, a party, under their guidance, wish- 
ing to go west would be equally liable to get among 
the Northern Siouxs or the Ku-Klux of Arkansas. 

A thousand miles east Young America's cherished 
ideal of the frontier scout and guide is an eagle-eyed 
giant, with a horse which obeys his whistle, and 
breaks the neck of any Indian trying to steal him. In 
addition to its wonderful master, the back of this mod- 
el steed is usually occupied by a rescued maiden. At 
risk of infringing on the copyrights of thirty-six thou- 
sand of the latest Indian stories, we have obtained from 
an artist on the spot an illustration of the last heroine 
brought in and her rescuer, the rare old plainsman.* 

Cody had all the frontiersman's fondness for prac- 
tical jokes, and delighted in designating Mr, Colon 
as "Mr. Boston," as if accidentally confounding the 
residence with the name. In one instance, with a cry 
of " Come, Mr. Boston, here's a specimen ! " he en- 
ticed the philanthropist into the eager pursuit of a 
beautiful little animal through some rank bottom 
grass, and brought the good man back in such a con- 
dition that we unanimously insisted on his traveling 
to leeward for the rest of the day. 

While we thus journe3^ed, and, in traditional 
traveler's style, mused and pondered, Shamus came 
running^^ack to say that we were wanted in front. 
''Such a goin' on in the ravine beyant as bates a 
witch's dance all holly ! " We saw that the forward 
wagons had halted and the men were peering 
* See illustration on page 137. 



196 BUFFALO LAND. 

cautiously over the edge of the highland into the 
valley of Silver Creek, which stream wound along 
below, entirely out of sight until one came directly 
upon it. In this lonely land, the pages of whose his- 
tory Time had so often turned with bloody fingers, an 
event slight as even this was startling. That hollow 
in the plain before us seemed to yawn, as if awaking 
in sleepy horrors, and we noticed a general tighten- 
ing of reins and rattling of spurs. This maneuver 
was executed to prevent our horses running away 
again and thus rendering us incapable of supporting 
our advanced guard. If savages were around, our 
provisions must be protected, and we at once dis- 
mounted and scattered among the teams in such a 
way as to oifer the most successful defense. 

Our fears were groundless. In a few moments 
Cody came galloping back on Brigham, and said 
briefly that we should lose a fine lesson in natural 
history unless we hurried to the front. Truth com- 
pels me to say that we did not hanker after a close 
acquaintance with Lo on the rampage; yet we did 
earnestly desire to improve every opportunity of 
studying the other inhabitants of the plains, and a 
few moments accordingly found our whole party peer- 
ing over the edge of the bluif into the valley below. 

There, on a patch of bottom grass, half a dozen elk 
were feeding; a short distance away, a small herd of 
wild horses drank from the brook ; while in a ravine 
immediately in front of us, three cayotes were at- 
tempting to capture a jackass-rabbit. What a wealth 
of animal life this valley had opened to us. From 
our own level the table-lands stretched away in all 



THE SCEXE TERMINATED. 199 

directions until striking its grassy waves against 
tlie horizon, with not a shrub, tree, or beast to re- 
lieve the clearly-cut outlines. Casting our eyes up- 
ward, the bright blue sky, clear of every vestige of 
clouds, arched down until resting on our prairie floor, 
and not even a bird soared in the air to charm the 
profound space with the eloquence of life. Casting 
our eyes downward, the earth was all astir with the 
activity of its brute creation. 

Before we could make any effort at capture, the 
elk and horses winded us and fled away toward the 
opposite ridges, where stalking them would have 
been exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Lead- 
ing the mustangs was a large black stallion, which 
kept its position by pacing while the others ran. 
Buffalo Bill said this was an escaped American horse 
which had fled to solitude with the rider's blood upon 
his saddle. "VYe noted the statement as one for future 
elucidation at our cami>fire. The rabbit chase in the 
ravine continued, and we watched it unseen for 
several minutes. The wolves were endeavoring to 
surround their victim, and cut in ahead of it when- 
ever he attempted to get out of the ravine. Although 
such odds were against him, the rabbit had thus far 
succeeded by superior speed and quick dodging in 
evading his enemies ; but escape was hopeless, as he 
was hemmed in and becoming exhausted. These 
tireless wolves, cowardly creatures though they are, 
might worry to death an elephant. A few shots ter- 
minated this scene, driving off the wolves, but killing 
the rabbit for whose protection they were fired. The 
Professor remarked that this was like a lawyer's res- 



200 BUFFALO LAND. 

/ 

cue. He sometimes frightens away the persecutors, 
but the charges generally kill the client. 

For the benefit of those of my readers who have 
never seen a member of that unfortunate rabbit 
family which has been christened by such a humili- 
ating given name, I would state that the species is 
remarkable for its very long ears, and very long legs. 
If the reader, being a married man, desires a picto- 
rial representation of this animal, let him draw a don- 
key a foot high on the wall, and if his wife does not 
interrupt by drawing a broomstick, he may be satis- 
fied that his work is well done, and a life-size jackass- 
rabbit will stand out before him. 

A mile from the scene of this adventure Silver 
Creek joined the Saline, and at the junction it was 
determined to make our camp. We descended 
among heavy "brakes," staying our loaded wagons 
with ropes from behind. Immense quarries of the 
soft, white limestone rose from the valley's bed to 
the level of the plains above, and the rains of cen- 
turies had fashioned out pillars and arches, giving 
them the appearance of ancient ruins staring down 
upon us. Mr. Colon picked up a fine moss agate 
and the Professor a Kansas diamond. Under the 
surface of the former were several figures of bushes 
and trees, outlined as distinctly as the images one sees 
blown into glass. The diamond was as large as a 
hazel nut and as clear as a drop of pure water, so 
that, notwithstanding its size, ordinary print could be 
easily read through it. Had it possessed a hardness 
corresponding with its beauty, the Professor could 



UXCLE SAMUEL IN A BALLOON. 201 

have enriched with it half a dozen scientific institu- 
tions. Such stones now command a fair market 
value among travelers, and are generally mounted in 
rich settings as souvenirs of their trips. 

A picturesque group of some half-dozen oaks of- 
fered a good camping spot, and around it the wagons 
were placed for the night in a half-circle, the ends of 
the crescent resting each side of us upon the creek. 
The rule of the plains is, " In time of peace prepare 
for war." 

Northward from us, and distant perhaps fifty yards, 
rippled the clear waters of the Saline, which was then 
at a low stage. High above it was the table-land of 
the plains, and the edge of this, as far as we could 
trace it, was dotted with the dark forms of countless 
buffalo. So distant as to appear diminutive, their 
moving seemed like crawling, and the back-ground 
of light grass gave them much the ajipearance of bees 
upon a board. They were crowding up to the very 
edge of the valley of the Saline, from whence, as we 
were told, they extended back to the Solomon, thence 
to the Republican, and at intervals all the way north- 
ward to the remote regions of the Upper Missouri. 

Could the venerable Uncle Samuel go up in a balloon 
and take a thousand miles'- view of his western stock 
region, he would perceive that his goodly herds of 
bison, some millions in number, feeding between the 
snows of the North and the flowers of the South, were 
waxing fat and multiplying. This latter fact might 
somewhat surprise him, when he discovered around 
his herd a steady line of fire and heard its continual 
snapping. The unsophisticated old gentleman would 



202 BUFFALO LAT^D. 

see train after train of railroad cars rnstlino: over the 
plains, every window smoking with the bombardment 
like the port-holes of a man-of-war. He would see 
Upper Missouri steamers often paddling in a river 
black with the crossing herds, and j^ouring wanton 
showers of bullets into their shaggy backs. To the 
south Indians on horseback, to the north Indians on 
snow shoes, would meet his astonished gaze, and 
around the outskirts of the vast range his white chil- 
dren on a variety of conveyances, and all, savage 
and civilized alike, thirsting for buffalo blood. That 
the buffalo, in spite of all this, does apparently con- 
tinue to increase, shows that the old and rheumatic 
ones, the veteran bulls which in bands and singly 
circle around the inner herds of cows and calves, are 
the ones that most commonly fall the easy victims to 
the hunters. Their day has passed, and powder and 
ball but give the wolves their bones to pick a little 
earlier. 

Such were the thoughts that revolved in my mind 
while sitting upon one of the wagons, and dividing 
my attention between the tent pitching going on 
under the trees and the shaggy thousands which, 
feeding against the horizon, seemed to grow larger as 
the sun went down behind them and they stood out 
in deepening relief in the long autumn twilight. 
These solitudes made me think of Du Chaillu on the 
African deserts when night set in, and I wondered if 
the brute denizens there could be more interesting 
than those which surrounded us. Had a lion roared, I 
doubt whether it would have struck me as unnatural, 
although it might have induced a speedy change of 



A EAID OX THE WILD TURKEYS. 203 

base. It begets a peculiar feeling in one's mind, I 
thought, when the lower brutes surround him and his 
fcUow-creaturc alone is absent. Animal oruaniza- 
tions are every-where, blood throbbing and limbs 
moving, and yet the world is as solitary to him as if 
the planet had been sent whirling into space and no 
living being upon it except himself. A handkerchief, 
a hat, any thing wdiich his brother man may have 
worn, yields more of companionship than all the life 
around him. 

And now, through the trees, we saw several of our 
men running with their weapons in hand, and im- 
mediately afterward heard the rapid reports of their 
revolvers and rifles from the creek just below, fol- 
lowed by the fluttering, noisy exit of turkeys from 
among the trees. Some flew away, but most of them 
were running, and, in their fright, passed directl}' 
among the wagons. One old gobbler, with a fine 
glossy tuft hanging at his breast, had a hard time of 
it in running the gauntlet of our camp-followers, 
narrrowly escaping death by a frying pau hurled from 
the vigorous grasp of Shamus. 

This class of our game birds is noted the continent 
over for its wildness and cunning, these qualities fur- 
nishing old hunters with material for numberless 
yarns, as they gather around the camp-fires and 
weave their fancies into connected sequence. Thus 
it has become a matter of veritable history that know- 
ing gobblers sometimes examine the tracks that hunt- 
ers have left to see which way they are going. 

On Silver Creek the turkey's were very tame, and 
before it became too dark for shooting our party had 



204 BUFFALO LAND. 

killed twelve. Muggs and Sachem had combined 
their forces and devoted their joint attention to one of 
them sitting stupidly on a limb, where it received a 
bombardment of five minutes' duration before coming 
down. Our Briton explained that " the bird was un- 
able to fly away, you see, because I 'it 'im at my first 
shot." To this statement Sachem stoutly demurred 
upon two grounds : First, that Muggs' gun had gone 
off prematurely, the time in question, and barely 
missed one of his English shoes ; and, second, that the 
turkey showed but one bullet mark, and that Avound 
was necessarily fatal, as it had carried awa}'' most of 
the head ! A compromise was finally effected, and 
we were much edified by seeing the two coming into 
camp with the bird between them, sharing mutually 
its honors. 

Great numbers of turkey^s seemed to inhabit the 
creek, all along which we heard them, at dark, flying 
up to their roosts. This induced a number of our 
party to visit a large oak scarcely a hundred yards 
from camp, which one of our men had marked as a 
favorite resort. Proceeding with the utmost caution, 
under the dim shadows of approaching night, we pres- 
sently stood beneath the roost. Clearly defined be- 
tween us and the sky were the limbs, and clustering 
thickly over them, like apples left in fall uj^on a leaf- 
less tree, we could descry large blackballs, indicating 
to our hunger-stimulated imaginations as many pro- 
spective turkey roasts. For this special occasion our 
only two shot guns had been brought forth from the 
cases, the remainder of the party being furnished 
with Spencer and Henry rifles. 



A FLUTTER IX THE TEEE TOPS. 205 

We had been instructed each to select our bird, and 
fire at the word to be given by the guide. How loud 
and sharp the clicking of the locks sounded, in the 
stillness of that jungle on the plains, as six barrels 
pointed upward, but their aim made all unsteady by 
the thumping of as many palpitating hearts. Then, 
in a low tone, came the words — and they seemed 
hoarsely loud in the painful silence around us — 
" Ready ! Take careful aim ! " " Hold ! " cried the 
Professor, in a sudden outburst of enthusiasm ; 
"Gentlemen, j^ou see above us thirty fine specimens of 
that noblest of all American birds, the turkey. Wisely 
has it been said that, instead of the eagle, the turkey 
should have been our National " — " Fire ! " cried the 
guide, in an agony, as the Professor, having dropped 
his gun, was rising to his feet, and the turkeys, 
alarmed by his eloquence, were preparing for flight. 

And fire we did. A half dozen tongues of flame 
shot upward, and the roar of our unmasked battery 
reverberated over the solitude. The rustling and 
fluttering among the tree tops was terrific, and show- 
ers of twigs and bark rained down upon us. Every 
one of us knew that his shot had told, yet for some 
reason, perhaps owing to the superior cunning of the 
birds, none fell at our feet. Before regaining the 
wagon, however, we found fluttering on our path a fine 
fat one with a shattered second joint. It was claimed 
by Sachem, on the ground that in his aiming he had 
made legs a speciality, not wishing to injure the 
breasts. 

Later in the season, when the birds had become 

much wilder, I often shot them, both running and 
11 



206 BUFFALO LAND. 

fl^^ing. They are very hard to kill, and a sorely 
Avounded one will often astonish the hunter by run- 
ning long distances, or hiding where it seems impos- 
sible. The fall through the air, or sudden stop from 
fidl speed when running, are alike exciting spectacles. 
And the big body, with red throat and dark plume, 
luscious even to look at, is fit game to excite the pride 
of any sportsman. 

The modes of hunting the wild turkey are numer- 
ous.* Mounted on a swift pony it is not difficult to 
run one down, as may be done in half an hour, the 
birds, when pushed, seeking the open prairie and its 
ravines at once. On foot, with a dog, they can easily 
be started from cover, and generally rise with a tre- 
mendous commotion among the bushes, when they 
may be brought down with coarse shot. Another 
method of turkey shooting, and one that became 
quite a favorite of mine, was to steal out from camp 
in the gray of early morning — so early that only the 
tops of the trees were visible against the sky — 
provided with a rifle and shot gun both. When the 
birds have once been hunted, extreme caution is nec- 
essary to get within seventy yards of them. Upon a 
high bough, in the gloom, the old gobbler appears 
twice his real size, looking as long as a rail. Try the 
rifle first, and, two chances out of three, there is a 
miss. Then, as the great wings spread suddenly, 
like dark sails against the sky, and the big body, 
launched from the bough, shakes the tree top as if a 
wind was passing through it, catch your shot gun, 

* The amateur sportsman or other reader, will find them de- 
scribed at length iu the Appendix. 



OUR FIRST SUPPER OX THE PLAINS. 207 

and fire. In the dim light, and at long distance, it 
takes a quick and true eye to call from the ground 
that welcome resound which tells of game fallen. 

Under the big oaks, meanwhile, our camp fire burned 
brightly, and Shamus was developing the m^-steries 
of his art. Roast turkey and broiled antelope tempt 
the pampered appetites of dyspeptic city men, but here 
in the wilderness, their fresh juices, hissing from beds 
of glowing coals, filled the air with a fragrance that 
to us was sweeter than roses. Tired enough, after an 
all day's ride, and hungry as bears from twelve hours 
fasting, we sucked in the odors of the cooking meat, 
as a sort of aerial soup, while the Dobeen stood an 
aproned king of grease and turkey, with basting spoon 
for scepter, and with it kept motioning back the 
hungry hordes that skirmished along his borders. 

Two mess chests had been placed a few feet apart, 
with the tail-boards of our wagons connecting them, 
and over this was spread a linen table cloth, white 
plates, clean napkins, and bright knives, with salt, 
pepper, and butter. All were in their accustomed 
places. This our first meal on the plains looked more 
like an aristocratic pic-nic than a supper in the terri- 
tory of the buffixloes. But the picture was too bright 
to last, and ere many days neither napkins nor cloth 
could have been made available as fliags of truce. 

It is one of those threadbare truisms, adorning 
all hunting stories of every age and clime, that hun- 
ger is the best seasoning. We had an excess of it on 
hand just then, and would willingly have shared it 
with the dyspeptic, bald headed young men of Fifth 
Avenue. The turkey we found fat and very rich in 



208 BUFFALO LAND. 

flavor, and the antelope steaks more delicate than 
venison. Condensed milk supplied well the place of 
the usual lacteal, and was an improvement on the city 
article, inasmuch as we knew exactly what quantity 
and quality of water went into it. We were obliged 
to economize, however, respecting this part of our sup- 
plies. The following entry in our log-book, by Sa- 
chem, under date of the day preceding this, will ex- 
plain the reason : " Two cans of milk stolen, probably 
by the Cheyennes. Consider the article more reliable 
for families than city stump-tail, requiring neither 
milking or feeding, and never kicking the bucket, or 
causing infants to do so. Had no idea that a taste of 
it would develop such a talent for hooking." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A CAMP-FIRE SCENE — VAGABONmZINO — THE BLACK PACER OF THE PLAINS — SOMH 

ADVICE FROM BUFFALO BILL ABOUT INDIAN FIGHTING LO's ABHORRENCE OF 

LONG RANGE HIS DREAD OF CANNON AN IRISH GOBLIN SACHEM's " SONG OF 

SHAMUS." 

HOW vividly, when one is fairly embarked in any 
new enterprise, do the events of the first night 
impress one's imagination, and how indelibly do they 
fix themselves in the memory ! Inside our tents all 
Avas clean and cheery, but as none of us were disposed 
to seek them before a late hour, we spent the evening 
aroamd our camp-fires. Excitement, for the time, had 
overmastered our sense of fatigue. The Professor's 
notes were out, and, with his feet to the fire and a box 
for a desk, he looked more like the Arkansas traveler 
writing home, than the learned savan committing to 
paper the latest secrets wrung from nature. The re- 
mainder of our party were scattered promiscuously 
around the fire, some seated on logs and boxes, the 
others outstretched upon the grass. 

Tammany Sachem was the first to break the si- 
lence. *' Fellow citizens," he exclaimed, " let's vaga- 
bondize ! " N'ow, with our alderman, vagabondizing 
meant story telling, an accomplishment which we 
consider the especial forte of vagabonds. 

We all hailed this proposition gladly, for Buffalo 
Bill, stretched there before the fire, had much of plain 

(209) 



210 BUFFALO LAND. 

lore stored in his active brain that we wished to draw 
out, and we at once seized the opportunity to ask 
about the bhick pacer we had seen during the after- 
noon, and his weird story of the bloody saddle. 

From Bill's narrative we gathered the following : 
Something over a year before the era of our expedition a 
train of government wagons left Fort Hays destined for 
Fort Harker, and the Indians being troublesome, some 
twenty soldiers were sent in the wagons, as a guard. 
A few hours later there passed through Hays City a 
man from the mountains riding a powerful black stal- 
lion, while his family, consisting of a young wife and 
her brother, occupied a covered wagon which followed 
close behind. The stranger determined to take ad- 
vantage of the protection aiforded by the government 
train, and the little party pushed out after it over the 
plains. The day was a sultry one in midsummer, ihe 
sun pouring down its flood of heat on the desolate 
surface of the expanse that spread away on all sides. 
The long train, a full mile from front to rear, dragged 
its slow length sluggishly along, the mules sleepily 
following the trail, while the teamsters and soldiers 
dozed in the covered wagons. A driver, who hap- 
pened to be awake, saw in the distance a beautiful 
mirage, and in it, as he looked, strange objects, 
like mounted men, were bobbing up and down. But 
then he had often seen weeds and other small ob- 
jects similarly transformed, by these wonderful illu' 
sions of the plains, and even he forgot the bobbing 
shadows and dozed away again on his seat. 

But there was danger near. Stealthily out of the 
mirage, and bending low in their saddles, rode a 



THE STOKY OF THE BLACK PACER. 211 

painted band of savages, hiding their advance in a 
ravine. Their purpose was to strike and cut off the 
rear of the train, the length of which promised unu- 
sual success to their undertaking, as the white men 
were too much scattered to oppose any resistance to 
a sudden onset. At length, nearly the entire train had 
filed by, and the foremost of the last half dozen wag- 
ons approached the ravine. At the signal, out from 
it burst the troop of red horsemen, and crossed the 
road like a dash of dust from the hand of a hurricane, 
every savage spreading his blanket and uttering the 
war whoop. The startled teams fled in stampede over 
the plains, dragging the wagons after them. Some 
of the drivers were thrown out and others jumped. 
Two or three were killed, and by the time the other 
teams and the guards had taken the alarm, and turned 
back for a rescue, the savages had cut the traces of 
the frightened mules, and were on the return with 
them to their distant villages. Instead of stopping 
the animals to release them from the wagons, the In- 
dians urged them to wilder speed, and leaning from 
their saddles, cut the fastenings at full run. Among 
the booty taken, was a valuable race horse and fifteen 
hundred dollars in greenbacks, belonging to an offi- 
cer who was on his way from A^ew Mexico to the East. 
Meanw^hile, our friend, the owner of the black pacer, 
with his outfit, was moving quietly along two or three 
miles in the rear, entirely unaware of affairs at the 
front. Some of the savages, while escaping with the 
booty, espied him, and coveting the noble animal 
which he rode, they made a detour and surprised 
him as he sat jogging along a hundred yards or so 



212 BUFFALO LAND. 

ahead of the wagon containing his wife and brother- 
in-hiw. Though mortally wounded at their first voi- 
le}^, with the desperate effort of a dying man he clung 
to the saddle for a hundred yards or more, and then 
rolled upon the prairie a lifeless corpse. Frantic with 
terror, the horse dashed through the circle of Indians 
that surrounded him, and fled. The savages, prob- 
ably fearing longer delay, did not pursue, nor even 
attack the wagon, and the black pacer was not seen 
again for some months, when at length some hunters 
discovered him, freed from saddle and bridle, the 
leader of the wild herd. 

Buffalo Bill gave us quite an insight into some of 
the mysteries of plain craft. When you are alone, 
and a party of Indians are discovered, never let them 
approach you. If in the saddle, and escape or con- 
cealment is impossible, dismount, and motion them 
back with your gun. It shows coolness, and these 
fellows never like to get within rifle range, when a 
firm hand is at the trigger. If there is any water 
near, try and reach it, for then, if worst comes to 
worst, you can stand a siege. The savages of the 
plains are always anxious to get at close quarters be- 
fore developing hostility. Unless very greatly in the 
majority, and with some unusual incentive to attack, 
they will not approach a rifle guard. Were they as 
well supplied with breech-loading guns as with pis- 
tols;. the case would be different, of course. Bill was 
the hero of many Indian battles, and had fought 
savages in all ways and at all hours, on horseback 
and on foot, at night and in daytime alike. 

As an amusing illustration of the savage abhor- 



THE WITCH QUESTION AGAIN. 213 

rence of long-range guns, I beg the reader's indul- 
gence for introducing an anecdote which I afterward 
heard narrated b}' an officer who participated in the 

affair. Major A was sent out from Fort Hays 

witli a company of men on an Indian scout, and, when 
near a tributary of the south fork of the Solomon, the 
savages appeared in force, and a fight commenced, 
which continued until dark. Several soldiers were 
wounded and two killed. As the Indians were evi- 
dently increasing in numbers, after nightfall a squad 
was dispatched to the fort for ambulances and rein- 
forcements. Only six men could be spared, and these 
were sent off with a light field-piece in charge. Soon 
after crossing the Saline, a strong band of Indians 
was discovered half a mile off reconnoitering. A 
shell was sent screaming toward them, but the aim 
was too high, and it burst a short distance beyond 
them. Nevertheless, the effect was instantaneous ; 
the savages vanished, nor stood upon the order of 
their going. During the next ten miles this scene 
was repeated three times, the stand-point on each oc- 
casion being removed further and further away. The 
last shot was a remarkably long one, and the shell 
burst directly in their faces. Xot only did they dis- 
appear for good, but the whole investing force, on 
receiving their report, fled likewise. 

Talking thus about Indians, under the gloom of the 
trees, seemed in some unaccountable way to suggest 
the idea of witches to the mind of Pythagoras. Per- 
haps, in accordance with, the theory of development, 
he w^as cogitating whether not, long back, the red 
man's family horse might not have been a broom- 



214 BUFFALO LAND. 

stick. At any rate, he suddenly gave a new turn to 
the conversation by asking Shamus why, when the 
dogs pointed the witch-hazel during our quail hunt at 
Topeka, he had affirmed that the canine race could 
see spirits and witches which to mortal eyes were in- 
visible. Now, the Dobecn had been bred on an Irish 
moor, where the whole air is woven, like a Gobelin 
tapestry, full of dreams of the marvelous, and where 
whenever an unusual object is noticed by moonlight, 
the frightened peasant, instead of stopping a moment 
to investigate the cause, rushes shivering to his hut 
to tell of the fearful phooJcas he has seen. He was 
very suiDerstitious, and we had often been amused at 
his evasions, when, as sometimes happened, his faith 
conflicted with our commands. The time might be 
near when such peculiarities would prove trouble- 
some instead of amusing, and it was well, therefore, 
that we should get a peep at the foundations of our 
cook's faith, and perhaps that portion of it which re- 
lated to our friends, the dogs, would be especially en- 
tertaining. Moreover, we had had so much of the red 
man that we were glad to welcome an Irish witch to 
our first camp-fire. Dobeen's narrative was substan- 
tially as follows, though I can not attempt to clothe it 
in his exact language, and still less in the rich brogue 
which yet clung to him after years of ups and downs 
in "Ameriky."' 

" Dogs can study out many things better than men 
can," said Shamus, in his most impressive manner. 
" Before I left old Ireland for America, I had a dash- 
ing beast, with as much wit as any boy in the country. 
He could poach a rabbit and steal a bird from under 



DOBEEN ENLIGHTENS US. 215 

the gamekeeper's nose, an' give the swatest howl of 
vvarniii' whenever a bailiff came into them parts." 

Sachem suji-o-csted that these were rather remark- 
able habits for a dog connected with the great house 
of Dobeen. 

" But yez must know he was only a pup when my 
fortunes went by," responded Shamus, "and he learnt 
these tricks afterward. iVh, but he was a smart 
chap ! Couldn't he smell bailiffs afore ever they 
came near, an' see all the witches and ghosts, too, by 
second sight! He wouldn't never go near the O'Shea's 
house, that had a haunted room, though pretty ^lary, 
the house-girl, often coaxed at him with the nicest 
bits of meat." 

Sachem thought that perhaps the animal's second 
sight might have shown him that stray shot from 
pretty Mary's master, aimed at a vagabond, might 
perhaps hit the vagabond's dog. 

"I wasn't a vagabond them times," retorted Sha- 
mus, quickly, yet with entire good humor, " and sorry 
for it I am that the name could ever belong to me 
since. And please, Mr. Sachem, don't be after inter- 
ruptin' again. Some people wonder why the dogs 
bark at the new moon an' howl under the windows 
afore a death. In the one matter, your honors, they 
see the witches on a broomstick, ridin' roun' the sky, 
an' gatherin' ripe moon-beams for their death-mix- 
tures an' brain blights. Many a man in our grand- 
fathers' time — yes, an' now-a-days too — sleepin' under 
the full moon, has had his brains addled by the un- 
wholesome powder falling from the witches' aprons. 
Wise men call it comet dust. And why shouldn't a 



216 BUFFALO LAND. 

dog that has grown up to mind his duty of watchin' 
the family, howl when he sees Death sittin' on the 
window sill, a starin' within, and prej^arin' to snatch 
some darlint away ? Ah, but their second sight is a 
wonderful gift though ! 

" The name of my dog, your honors, Avas Groblin, 
an' he came to us in a queer sort of way, just like a 
goblin should. There was a hard storm along the 
coast, an' the next mornin' a broken yawl drifted in, 
half full of water, with a dead man washin' about in 
it, an' a half-drowned pup squattin' on the back seat. 
Me an' my cousin buried the man, an' the other beast 
I brought up. May be there was somethin' in this 
distress that he got into so young that he could n't 
outgrow. Even the priest used to notice it, and say 
the poor creature had a sort of touch of the melan- 
choly; an' sure, he never was a joyful dog. Smart 
an' true he was, but, faith, he was n't never happy ; 
yez might pat him to pieces, an' get never a wag of 
the tail for it. He delighted in wakes and buryins, 
an' when a neighborin' gamekeeper died, he howled 
for a whole day an' a night, though the man had shot 
at him twenty times. Mighty few men, your honors, 
with a dozen slugs in their skin, would have stood on 
the edge of a man's grave that shot them, an' mourned 
when the earth rattled on the box the way Goblin, 
poor beast, did then. Ah, nobody knows what dogs 
can see with their wonderful second sight. That beast 
thought an' studied out things better than half the 
men ye'll find ; an' it 's my belief that dogs did so be- 
fore, an' they have done it since, an' they always 
will." 



DOBEEX SUFFERS AN INTEERUPTION. 217 

" You are right, Dobeen," said the Professor. " Put 
a wise dog, and a foolish, vicious master together. 
The brute exhibits more tenderness and tlioughtful- 
ness than the man. In the hitter, even the mantle of 
our largest charity is insufficient to cover his multitude 
of sins, while the skin of his faithful animal wraps noth- 
ing but honest virtue. The dog, having once suffered 
from poison, avoids tempting pieces of meat thencefor- 
ward, when proffered by strange hands, but the man 
steeps his brain in poison again and again — or as often 
as he can lay hold of it. While grasping the deadly 
thing, he sees, stretching out from the bar room door, 
a down grade road, with open graves at the end, and 
frightened madmen, chased by the blue devils and mur- 
der and misery, rushing madly toward them. These 
swallow their victims, as the hatches of a prison ship 
do the galley slave, and close upon them to give them 
up only when the jailer, the angel of the resurrection, 
shall unlock the tombs, and calls their occupants to 
judgment. Does the sight appall and bring him to his 
senses ? 'No, he crowds among the terrors, and takes 
to his bosom the same venomous serpent that he has 
seen sting so many thousands to death before him. 
And yet people give to the brute's wisdom the name 
of instinct, and call man's madness wisdom." 

" But, your honors," interposed Dobeen, " I shall be 
after losing my dog entirely, unless yez lave off inter- 
ruptin' me, an' let me finish my story." 

"Go on, Shamus, go on!" we all cried with one 
breath. 

" Well, then, when Goblin came to me in his infan- 
cy, he wore a silver collar with his name all beauti- 



218 BUFFALO LAl^D. 

fully engraved on it. May be the dead man in the boat 
had been bringing him from some strange land to the 
childer at home, and thinking how the odd name 
would please them all, when the shadows were dart- 
ing around his hearth. And so Groblin howled his way 
through the world, till one full moon eve, when every 
bog was shinin' as if the peat was silver. Such times, 
any way in old Ireland, your honors, the air is full of 
unwholesome spirits. This was good as a wake for 
Goblin, and I can just hear him now the way he cried 
and howled that night ! He kept both eyes fixed on 
the moon, and no mortal man, livin' or dead, will ever 
know what he saw, but when he howled out worse nor 
common that night, it meant, maybe, that some witch, 
uglier than the rest, had just whisked across the shin- 
in' sky. Just at midnight, I was waked out of a 
swate sleep by the quietness \\ithout, the wa}^ a mil- 
ler is when his mill stops. I looked out of the win- 
dow at the dog where he sat, an', faith, the dog was n't 
there at all ! Just then I heard a despairin' sort of 
howl, away up in the air above the trees, an' by that 
token I knew the witches had Goblin. 'Next mornin', 
one of the lads livin' convanient to us told me he had 
heard the same cry in the middle of the night, the cry, 
your honors, of the poor beast as the witches carried 
him off. Afore the week was out, Goblin's collar was 
found on the gamekeeper's grave ; that was all — not a 
hair else of him was ever seen in old Ireland." 

As Shamus concluded his veracious narrative he 
looked around upon us with an air of triumph, as if 
satisfied that even Sachem dare not now dispute the 
second sight of the canine race. 



THE SONG OF SHAMUS. 



219 



That worthy had been busily engaged for several 
minutes in scratching away with the stump of a pen- 
cil at the back of an old envelope, and appeared not 
to notice it. It was now his turn, however, to vaga- 
bondize, and this he did by reading several verses of 
somewhat irreverent doggerel, the whole forming 
what he was pleased to call a poem, dedicated to our 
cook, and entitled, " The Song of Shamus." Concern- 
ing this effusion, suffice it to say that it was by no 
means eulogistic of the Dobeen's character for verac- 
ity, and was duly paid up for by him at the first con- 
venient opportunit3^ 




SMASHING A CHEYENNE BLACK KETTLE. 



CHAPTER XY. 

A FIRE SCENE — A GLIMPSE OF THE SOUTH — 'COON HUNTING IN MISSISSIPPI — VOICES 

IN THE SOLITUDE — FRIENDS OR FOES A STARTLING SERENADE — PANIC IN 

CAMP CAYOTES AND THEIR HABITS WORRYING A BUFFALO BULL THE 

SECOND DAY DAUB, OUR ARTIST — HE MAKES HIS MARK. 

OUR fire scene was evidently no novelty to the 
Mexicans, whose lives had been spent in camp- 
ing out, and who, with one cheap blanket each, for 
mattress and covering, slept soundly under the 
wagons. Across their dark, expressionless faces the 
flames threw fitful gleams of light, which were as un- 
heeded as the flashes with which the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury endeavors to penetrate the gloom which shrouds 
them as a nation. While the world moves on, the 
degenerate descendants of Montezuma sleep. 

In the valley bordering our little skirt of trees we 
could hear the horses cropping the short, juicy buf- 
f[ilo grass, and trailing their lariat ropes around a 
circle, of which the pin was the center. Semi-Colon 
la}'" on the grass close to his father, who occupied a 
cracker-box seat in this tableau, the amiable son at 
little intervals raising his head to indorse, in his pe- 
culiar dissyllabic way, what the positive parent said. 
Looking at the group around me, and thinking of our 
evening turkey hunt, memory carried me back to the 

(220) 



AFTER THE 'POSSUM. 221 

last time I had been among the trees after dark, 
with gun in hand, which was at the South, away 
down in Mississippi, just after the war. 

It was a lazy time, those November days. Large 
flocks of swans filled the air above, with their flute- 
like notes, and thousands of sand-hill cranes circled 
far up toward the sun, their bodies looking like dis- 
tant bees, as from dizzy heights they croaked their 
approbation of the rich crops beneath them. Ducks 
passed like charges of grape shot, sending back shrill 
whistles from their wings, as they dived down into the 
standing corn. 

As night came on, the moon went up in a great 
rush of light, like the reflector of a railroad train 
mounting the sky. Soon every shadow is driven 
from the woods, and then the horns are tooted, the 
dogs howl, and away go gangs of woolly heads, old 
and young, in pursuit of Messrs. 'Possum and 'Coon, 
In vain the sly tree-fox doubles around stumps, and 
leTiving tempting persimmon and oaks full of plump- 
est acorns, at the warning noise, seeks refuge among 
huge cypresses. On go the hunters — big dogs, little 
dogs, bear-teasers, and deer-hounds, sprinkled with 
darkeys — crashing through cane and underbrush, the 
human portion of the party laughing and yelling as 
if a tempest had stolen them ages ago from Babel, 
and just discharged them in pursuit of that particu- 
lar 'coon. 

The voice of the Professor suddenly called me back 
to the present, and I found myself chilled by the wet 
grass, as if my body had been wandering with the 

12 



222 BUFFALO LAND. 

mind in that land of cotton, and was unprepared for 
the northern air. 

" Gentlemen" — this was what the voice said — " we 
are now one thousand and five hundred miles from 
Washington City, latitude 39, longitude 99. Stick a 
pin there on the map, and you will find that we have 
got well out on the spot that geographers have been 
pleased to call desert. Does it look like one ? Tell 
me, gentlemen, had you rather discount your man- 
hood among the stumps of New England than loan 
it at a premium to the rich banks of these streams ?" 
The Professor came to an abrupt pause, for borne 
to us on the still air was that most unmistakable of 
all sounds, the human voice. The note of one bird 
at a distance may be mistaken for another, and the 
cry of a brute, when faintl}^ heard, lose its distinguish- 
ing tones. But once let man lift up his voice in the 
solitude, and all nature knows that the lord of ani- 
mal creation is abroad. There are many sounds 
which resemble the human voice, just as there are 
many objects which, indistinctly seen, the hunter's 
eye may misinterpret as birds. But when a flock of 
birds does cross his vision, however far away, he 
never mistakes them for any thing else. The first 
may have excited suspicion, the latter resolves at 
once into certainty. 

-We listened attentively and anxiously. It might 
very naturally be supposed that, after leaving the 
abodes of his fellows, and going far out into the soli- 
tary places of Nature, man would rejoice to catch the 
sounds which told him that others of his race were 
near, but this, like many other things, is modified by 



FRIEXDLY VISITORS. 223 

circumstances. On the plains the first question asked 
is, " Arc they friends or foes ? " Xo one being able 
to answer, the breeze and general probabilities are in- 
quired of, and until the eyes pass verdict the mo- 
ments are laden with -suspense. Even in times of 
peace the hunter, if possible, avoids the savage bands 
which flit back and forth across Buffalo Land ; for, if 
he saves his life, he is apt to lose an inconvenient 
amount of provisions, at least, at their hands. 

Our guide speedily informed us that Indians never 
make any noise when in camp, which was gratifying- 
intelligence. All further suspense was shortly re- 
lieved by the appearance down the valley of muskets 
glittering in the moon-light. The bearers proved to 
be two soldiers, who stated that some officers, with a 
small force of cavalry, were in camp a mile below us, 
being out for the purpose of obtaining buffalo meat, 
and having as guests two or three gentlemen from St. 
Louis, desirous of seeing the sport. They had heard 
our late heavy firing, and sent to know what was the 
matter. We gave the soldiers a late paper to carry 
back, and with many regrets that our fiitigue was too 
great to think of accompanying them for a neighborly 
call, we bade them good-night, and saw them dis- 
appear down the valley. 

At the Professor's suggestion, preparations were 
now made for retirins,-, and we sou^'ht our tent and 
blankets. In a few brief moments, the others of the 
party were blowing, in nasal trumpetings, the praises 
of Morpheus. I could not sleep, however; for each 
bone had its own individual ache, and was telling 



224 BUFFALO LAND. 

liow tired it was. Pulling up a tent-pin, I looked 
out under the canvas. 

On a log by the fire sat Shamus, his head between 
his hands, gazing at the coals, and droning a low tune. 
Occasionally, he would make a dash at some fire-brand, 
with a stick which he used as a poker, and break 
it into fragments, or toss it nervously to one side. 
Whether this was because it resolved itself into a fire- 
sprite winking at him, or some unhappy memory 
glowed out of the coals, I tried to tempt sleep by con- 
jecturing. 

Off at a little distance, I could see one of our men 
standing guard near the horses, and once or twice my 
excited fancy thought it detected shadows creeping 
toward him. A little beyond, nervously stretching 
his lariat rope, while walking in a circle around the 
pin, was Mr. Colon's Iron Billy. His clean head 
erect, and fine nose taking the breeze, the intelligent 
animal appeared restless, and I could not help think- 
ing that he saw or smelt something unusual, away in 
the darkness. What if the bottom grass was full of 
creeping savages? 

The crescent moon, just rising over the divide, was 
scarred by many cloud lines, and as yet gave no light. 
The sensation which had stolen over me was becom- 
ing disagreeable, when far ofP, at some ford down the 
creek, I heard animals splashing through water, and 
concluded that Billy's nervousness was caused by 
crossing buffaloes. The horse had an established rep- 
utation as a watch, his former ow^ner having assured 
us that neither Indian nor wild beast could approach 
camp without Billy giving the alarm. 



VOICES FROM HADES. 225 

Presently, Dobecn resumed his droning, which had 
been suspended for a few moments, this time singing- 
some snatches from an okl Irish balkid. The hist words 
were just dying away, when I started to my feet in 
horror. What an infernal chorus filled the air ! Each 
point of the compass was represented, and we were 
wrapped around with a discordant, fiendish cordon of 
sound. Bursting upon us with a deep mocking cry, 
it ended abruptly in a wild ''Ila-ha! " It was such 
a chorus as pours through Hades, when some poet 
opens, for an instant, the gate of the damned. Our 
poor Irishman, at the first sound, had fallen from the 
log as if shot, but had suddenly sprung to his feet, 
and was now performing a terror-dance behind the 
fire with a club. For a moment, I, too, had taken the 
outburst for the war-whoop of savages, but was saved 
from a panic by seeing through the gloom the figure 
of the sentinel still at his post, and the next instant 
the "S'oicc of the guide was lifted, with the re-assur- 
ing intelligence — " Only cayotes, gentlemen, only cay- 
otes!" 

Mr. Sachem and Mr. Muggs had been lying close 
behind me in their blankets. The former had given 
a terrified snort, and then both lay motionless. After 
the alarm. Sachem admitted that he was frightened. 
Had always heard that people shot over instead of 
under the mark in battle. Was resolved to lay low. 
Had no high views about such things. Muggs had 
not thought it worth while to get up. Knew they 
were wolves. Had heard more hextraordinary 'owls 
before he came to the blarsted country. 

But where was the doctor? Echo answered, 



223 BUFPALO LAND. 

" Where ? " " Hallo, Doctor ! " cried the guide, and 
a voice from the woods, which Wcis not echo, answered, 
''Coming!" Again Buffalo Bill lifted his voice in 
the solitude, and again came an answer, this time in 
a form of query, " Is it developed, my boy ? If so, 
classify it." And we answered that the birth in the 
air had developed into wolves, and been classified as 
the canis latrans, noisy and harmless. 

Finding that this new lesson in natural history had 
taken away all desire for sleep, I finished the study 
by the fire, with our guide for a tutor. 

The cayote (pronounced Ki-o-te), in its habits, is a 
villainous cross between a jackal and a wolf, feasting 
on any kind of animal food obtainable, even unearth- 
ing corpses negligently buried. With the large grny 
wolf, the cayotes follow the herds of bison, generally 
skulking along their outskirts, and feeding upon the 
wounded and outcasts. These latter are the old bulls 
Avhich, gaunt and stiff from age and spotted all ovei- 
with scars, are driven out of the herd by the stout 
and jealous youngsters. Feeding alone, and weak 
with the burden of years upon his immense shoulders, 
the old bull is surrounded by the hungry pack. But 
they dare not attack. One blow of that ponderous 
head, with the weight of that shaggy hump be- 
hind it, is still capable of knocking down a horse. 
The veteran could fling his adversaries as nearly over 
the moon as the cow ever jumped, if they only gave 
him a chance. Like a grim old castle, he stands 
there more than a match for any direct assault of 
the army around. 

With the tact of our modern generals, a line of in- 



ALL UP WITH THE OLD BULL. 229 

vestment is at once formed, and a system of worrying 
adopted. No rest now for the old bull. He can not 
lie down, or the beasts of prey will swarm upon him. 
Again and again he charges the foe, each time clear- 
ing a passage readily, but only to have it close again 
almost instantly. In these resultless sorties the 
garrison is fast using up its material of war. The 
ammunition is getting short which fires the old war- 
rior, and sends the black horns, like a battering-ram, 
right and left among his foes. As long as he keeps 
his feet he lives, though hemmed in closely by the snap- 
ping and snarling multitude. The tenacity of one of 
these patriarchs is wonderful. For a whole life-time 
chief of the brutes on his native plains, he has grown 
up surrounded by wolves. Not fearing them himself, 
he has easily defended the cows and calves. An 
attempted siege would once have been but sport to 
him, and it seems difficult for the brain in the thick 
skull to understand that Time, like a vampire, has 
been sucking the juices from his joints and the blood 
from his veins. 

Tired out at length, the old bull begins to totter, 
and his knees to shake from sheer exhaustion. His 
shakiness is as fatal as that of a Wnll Street bull. 
As he lies down the Avolves are upon him. They are 
clinging to the shaggy form, like blood-hounds, before 
it has even sunk to the sod, and the victim never 
rises again. 

The cayotes are very cowardly, and w^hen carcasses 
are plenty, sleep during the day in their holes, which 
are generally dug into the sides of some ravine. If 
found during the hours of light, it is usually skulking 



230 BUFFALO LAND. 

in the hollows near their burrows. They have a 
decidedly disagreeable penchant for serenading 
travelers' camps at night, so that our late experience, 
the guide assured me, was by no means uncommon. 
They will steal in from all directions, and sit quietly 
down on their haunches in a circle of investment. 
Not a sound or sign of their coming do they make, 
and, if on guard, one may imagine that every foot of 
the country immediately surrounding is visible, and 
utterly devoid of any animate object. All at once, 
as if their tails were connected by a telegraphic wire, 
and they had all been set going by electricity, the 
whole line gives voice. The initial note is the only 
one agreed upon. After striking that in concert, each 
particular cayote goes it on his own account, and the 
effect is so diabolical that I could readily excuse 
Shamus for thinking that the dismal pit had opened. 

At this point Dobeen approached and cut off my 
further gleaning of wolf lore. The corners of his 
mouth seemed still inclined to twitch, showing that 
the shock had not yet worn off. He was chilled by 
the night, he said, and did not feel very well, and 
craved our honors' i^ermission to sleep at our feet in 
the tent. Consent was given, and as he left us he 
turned to announce his belief that animals with such 
voices must have big throats. 

It was not yet light, next morning, when our camp 
was all astir again. Drowsiness has no abiding place 
with an expedition like ours upon the plains. Should 
he be found lurking anywhere among the blankets, a 
bucket of water, from .some hand, routs him at once 
and for the whole trip. Even Sachem, who usually 



STIFFENED JOINTS. 231 

hugged Morpheus so long and late, might that morn- 
ing have been seen among the earliest of us washing 
in the waters of the creek. 

We were all in excellent spirits, and with appetites 
for breakfast that would have done no discredit to a 
pack of hungry wolves. Xo sign of the sun was yet 
visible, save a scarcely perceptible grayish tinge dif- 
fusing itself slowly through the darkness, and the lift- 
ing of a light fog along the creek upon which we were 
encamped. Although sufficiently novel to most of 
our party, the scene was quite dreary, and we longed, 
amid the gloom and chill, for the appearance of the 
sun, and breakfiist. En passant, I have noticed that 
with excursion parties, whether sporting or scientific, 
enthusiasm rises and sets with the sun. The gray 
period between darkness and dawn is an excellent 
time for holding council. The mind, no less than the 
body, seems to find it the coolest hour of the twenty- 
four, and shrinks back from uncertain advances. 

Added to the discomforts usually attendant upon 
camp-life were our stiff joints. The first day upon 
horseback is twelve hours of pleasant excitement, 
with a fair share of wonder that so delightful a re- 
creation is not indulged in more generally. The next 
twenty-four hours arc spent in wondering whether 
those limbs which furnish one the means of locomo- 
tion are still connected with the stiffened body, or ut- 
terly riven from it; and, if the whole truth must be 
told, the saddle has also left its scars. 

As the edge of the plateau overlooking the river 
became visible in the growing light, we saw, as on 
the evening previous, multitudes of buffalo feeding 



232 BUFFALO LAND. 

there, and after breakfast a council of war was held. 
I am somewhat ashamed to record that it voted 
no hunting that day. To find the noblest of Amer- 
ican game some of us had come half away across the 
continent, and now, in sight of it, the tide of enthu- 
siasm which had swept us forward hitherto stood sud- 
denly still. jSTot because it was about to ebb, but sim- 
ply in obedience to certain signals of distress flying 
from the various barks, and which it was utterly im- 
possible for any of us to conceal. 

For mounting a horse was entirely out of the ques- 
tion for that day. Not one of us could have swung 
himself into saddle for any less motive than a race 
with death. Our steps were slow^ and painful, and we 
felt as if, at this period of life's voyage, every timber 
of our several crafts had been pounded separately 
upon some of the hidden rocks of ocean. It was ab- 
solutely necessary to go into dock for repairs, and 
the valley promised to be a pleasant harbor. 

It was a truly melancholy spectacle to behold Sa- 
chem and Muggs. The liveliest and the gayest ones 
yesterday, but to-day the gravest of the grave. That 
rotund form, which always doubted his own or other 
people's emotions, was the walking embodiment of 
woe, and for once evidently clear of all doubt upon 
one subject, at least. Muggs was even free to con- 
fess that, for general results, yesterday's rough rid- 
ing exceeded " a 'unt with the 'ounds." Our ani- 
mals were also quite stiff, but the hostlers attributed 
this not so much to their yesterday's service as to 
their long ride in the cars. They had not yet got 
their " land legs " fully on again. It was soothing to 



EXPLORING OUR SURROUNDINGS. 233 

our pride, if not to our feelings, to reflect that per- 
haps some of our soreness was the result of their first 
day's stiffness. 

A beaver colony near us, and a great abundance 
of turkeys, offered lessons in natural history of no 
small interest, and within reach of lame students. 
The valley gave an entomological invitation to Mr. 
Colon, and the great ledges, with their possibilities of 
valuable fossils, attracted the Professor. 

Sitting on a wagon tongue, and applying liniment 
to an abraded shin, might have been seen Pythagoras, 
M. D., whose daily life, since leaving Topeka, had 
been a scries of struggles with the brute he rode. His 
belief in the transition of souls into horses was grow- 
ing upon him. lie felt that he was combating the 
spirit of a deceased prize-fighter, whicli used its hoofs 
as fists, landing blows right and left. Doctor David 
called these " spiritual manifestations." A favorite 
habit of the animal was what is known as brushing 
flies from the ear with the hind foot, and often, as the 
owner was about to mount, this species of front kick 
would upset him. The equine's disposition, it must 
be said, had not been improved by the immense sad- 
dle-bags with which the Doctor had surmounted him 
when on the march. Originally, these contained a 
small amount of medicine, but this had all been 
ground to powder under the weight of sundry stones 
and bones, gathered in the furtherance of the great 
theory of development. 

As the sun got well up in the heavens, staying in 
camp became monotonous, aud we hobbled off in dif- 
ferent directions, to examine the surroundings. Our 



234 BUFFALO LAND. 

Mexicans climbed to the plains above, taking their 
rusty muskets along to kill buffalo. Our guide went 
down to the hunting camp below us, intending to re- 
turn to Hays with the officers, home duties requiring 
his attention. One of our hostlers, familiar with the 
country, was to be our pilot in future. 

Back of our camp lay the castellated rocks which 
had attracted our notice the previous evening, and 
over which Daub, our artist, now became intensely 
enthusiastic. He wandered back and forth in front 
of them, his soul in his eyes, and these upturned to 
the bluffs. And thus we left him. 

"Grenius is struggling hard for utterance there,^' 
said the Professor impressively. " That young man 
will make his mark ; see if he does n't." Alas, how 
little we thought he would do it so soon. 

An hour later, returning that way, we descried our 
artist high up on the face of the rocks, perched on a 
jutting fragment, and clinging to a stunted cedar with 
one hand, while with the other he plied his brush. 
Fully forty feet intervened between him and the 
earth. 

" What devotion !" cried the Professor. 

"Beautiful spirit," said Mr. Colon, "how soon it 
commences to climb." 

" That young man will develop," said Dr. Pythag- 
oras. 

A few feet more, and the artist and his work were 
fully revealed. He had developed. A cry of agony 
came from the Professor's lips ; for there in large yel- 
low lines, half blotting out a beautiful stone, our eyes 
beheld the diabolical letters, S Z . 



PERSECUTED GENIUS. 235 

He never finished the word. The Professor seized 
a rifle, and brought it to a level with the artist's paint 
pot. "Comedown, you rascal !" he cried. "How 
dare you deface one of nature's castles with a patent 
name ? " Would he have fired ? I think he would. 
But the man of genius caught his eye, and compre- 
hending the situation, cried, w^ith face whiter than 
the chalk before him, " 0, don't ! " 

"Add the 'odont', you villain," screamed the Pro- 
fessor, " and I '11— I '11 fire ! " 

With our first returning wagon, the artist went 
back to Hays, but his work, alas ! remains, and per- 
haps — who knows ? — some future generation may yet 
point to that wall and tell how SOZ, king of an ex- 
tinct people, once held dominion over the beautiful 
valley. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

BISON MEAT A STRANGE ARRIVAL — THE SYDNEY FAMILY THE HOME IN THE VAL- 
LEY THE SOLOMON MASSACRE THE MURDER OP THE FATHER AND THE CHILD 

THE settlers' FLIGHT INCIDENTS OUR QUEEN OF THE PLAINS THE 

PROFESSOR INTERESTED — IRISH MARY DOBEEN HAPPY — THE HEROINE OF 

ROMANCE sachem's BATH BY MOONLIGHT — THE BEAVER COLONY. 

AT noon we were all in camp again, fully pre- 
pared to do justice to the ample dinner of buf- 
falo, antelope, and turkey which we found awaiting 
ns. The Mexicans brought in the quarter of an old 
bull, and, according to their own story, had committed 
terrible slaughter on the plain above ; but, as we had 
already learned to balance a Mexican account by a de- 
duction of nine-tenths for over-drafts, we felt that we 
saw before us the result of their day's hunt. This 
our first taste of bison, gave us highly exaggerated 
ideas of that animal's endurance. The entire flesh 
was surprisingly elastic — indeed, a very clever imita- 
tion of India rubber. It recoiled from our teeth with 
a spring, and just then I should scarcely have been 
surprised had I seen those buifalo which Avere feed- 
ing in the distance, go bounding off like immense 
foot-balls. My opinion in regard to butfalo meat 
afterward underwent a great change, but not until I 
had tasted the flesh of the cows and calves. Shamus, 
on this occasion, had devoted his culinarv energies 

(236) 



UNEXPECTED VISITORS. 237 

especially to the turkeys, and they were well worthy 
such attention. Their fat forms, nicely browned, 
would have tempted the veriest dyspeptic. 

Just as we rose from dinner, a covered emigrant 
wagon was discovered approaching us, coming down 
the vallev riiiht on our trail. From the fact that we 
were off the route of overland travel, our first con- 
jecture was that it was from Hays, with a party of 
hunters, or possibl}' with Tenacious Gripe, so far re- 
covered as to be rejoining us. We assumed an atti- 
tude of dignified interest, prepared to develop it into 
friendship, or ''don't want to know you " style, as oc- 
casion might require. A hale, elderly man was the 
driver, now walking beside his oxen. The outfit 
halted before our astonished camp, and as it did so two 
women, genuine spirits of calico and long hair, lifted 
a corner of the wagon cover and looked out. Both 
were apparently young, but one face was thin, and 
had that peculiar expression of being old before its 
time which is far more desolate than age. The other 
countenance was certainly good-looking and interest- 
ing — quite different, indeed, from those usually seen 
peeping out of emigrant wagons. Introductions are 
short and decisive on the plains. We liked their 
looks, and invited them to stop ; they liked ours, and 
accepted. I think the Professor's dignified attitude 
and scholarly bearing stood us in good stead as refer- 
ences. 

Another female developed as the wagon gave forth 
its load — this time a bouncing Irish girl, rosy-cheeked 
and active, evidently the family servant. At this 
latter apparition Shamus dropped one of our platters, 



238 BUFFALO LAND. 

but quickly recovering himself, began to put forth 
wonderful exertions to prepare a second dinner, the 
new comers having consented, after some hesitation, 
to become our guests during the nooning hour. 

Before proceeding to give the reader the history of 
this interesting family, I ought, perhaps, to say that 
I do so with their express permission, the only dis- 
guise being that, at his request, the father will here be 
designated by his Christian name, Sydney. 

These people, after an absence of about a year, were 
now returning from Elizabeth City, a recently-started 
mining town in New Mexico, to their former home, 
about forty miles east of our present camp, which they 
had left the preceding season under circumstances that 
were sad, indeed. About three years before, the fam- 
ily, then consisting of Mr. Sydney and wife, and 
their two daughters, had moved from Ohio to Kansas 
and settled on a tributary of the Solomon. Availing 
himself of the homestead law, Mr. Sydney took a 
tract of one hundred and sixty acres, and commenced 
improving it. One of the daughters soon married a 
vouno^ man to whom she had been betrothed at the 
East, and who at once set earnestly to work to make 
for himself and young wife a home in the new land. 
The houses of the father and the child were but half a 
mile apart, and, no timber intervening, each could be 
plainly seen from the other. For a time this little 
colony of two families was very happy. Having had 
the first choice, their farms were well situated, em- 
bracing both river and valley, and their herds, pro- 
vided with rich and unlimited range, increased 
rapidly. Soon rumors came from below that a rail- 



A SAD DOMESTIC HISTORY. 239 

road, on its way to the Rocky Mountains, would 
shortly wind its way up the Solomon Valley, bring- 
ing civilization to that whole region, and daily mails 
within a few miles of their doors. 

The second year of prosperity had nearly ended, 
when one morning a man from the settlements above 
dashed rapidly past Mr. Sydney's house, turning in 
his saddle to cry that the Cheyennes had been mur- 
dering people up the river, and were now sweeping 
on close behind him. The message of horror was 
scarcely ended when the dusky cloud appeared in 
sight, rioting in its tempest of death down the valley. 
Midway between home and the house of her daughter, 
Mrs. Sydney was overtaken by the yelling demons. 
In vain the agonized husband pressed forward to the 
rescue, firing rapidly with his carbine. She was 
killed before his eyes, but not scalped, the Indians 
evidently considering delay dangerous. 

It is a fact that speaks volumes in illustration of 
the mingled ferocity and cowardice that characterize 
the wild Indians of to-day that, in all that terrible 
Solomon massacre, not a single armed man who used 
his weapon was harmed, nor was one house attacked. 
The victims were composed entirely of the sur- 
prised and the defenseless, overtaken at their work 
and on the roads. 

Passing the dead body of the mother, the Chey- 
ennes, on their wiry ponies, swept onward, like de- 
mon centaurs, toward the home of the daughter. Sit- 
ting by our fire at evening, with that dreary, fixed 
look which one never forgets who has once seen it, 

the young woman told us the story of her childless 
13 



240 BUFFALO LAND. 

widowhood. Her face was one of those which, smit- 
ten by, sorrow, are stricken until death. Once evi- 
dently comely, the smiles and warm flush had died 
out from it forever — ^just as in the lapse of centuries 
the colors fade from a painting. Though scarcely 
twenty-five, her youth was but an image of the past. 
She told her story in that mechanical, absent sort of 
manner which showed that no morning had followed 
the evening of that desolate day. She was still living 
with her dead. 

" The Lord gave me then a cup so bitter," she said, 
" that its sting drove a mother's joy from my heart 
forever. I have been at peace since, because, among 
the dregs, I found that God had placed a diamond 
for me to wear when I was wedded to him. Even then 
I did not rebel and reproach my Maker, but I sunk 
down with one loud cry, and it went right along to 
the great white throne up there, with the spirits of 
my husband and my babe. I thought I could see 
them in the air, like two white doves flitting upward, 
bearing with them, as part of our sacrifice, the cry 
that I gave, when my heart-strings seemed to snap, 
and I knew that I was a widow and childless. Per- 
haps I was crazed for a moment, or — I do not know — 
perhaps my spirit really did go with them part of the 
way. The neighbors found me there for dead, and I 
remained cold, till they brought in my dear babe, my 
poor, mutilated babe, and placed him on my breast. 
His warm blood must have woke me, and I sat up, and 
saw them bringing John's bod}^ to lay it by me. And 
then the whole scene came before me again, and it 
seemed so stamped into my very brain, that shutting 



THE TALE OF WOE CONCLUDED. 241 

my eyes left me more alone with my miirclered ones 
and the murderers. And I just dragged myself where 
I could look at the setting sun, and tried with its 
bright glare to burn the scene from oif my vision, 
so that, if I went mad, there would n't be any mem- 
ory of it left. For mad people have their memories 
and suffer from them, and they know it, and the very 
fact that they know it keeps them mad. I went 
through it all, 

"A person dreaming is not rational, and yet may 
suffer so, and feel it too, as to shudder hours after 
waking up. There was John, running toward the 
house with our baby boy, and the savages yelling and 
whipping their ponies, trying to getbetween the open 
door and him. Alone, he could have saved himself. 
And our baby thought John was running for play, 
and was clapping his little hands and chirping at me 
as the savages closed around my husband. I had 
only time to pray five words, " God, save my hus- 
band ! " and it did not seem an instant until I saw 
the poor body I loved so well l^'ing on the ground, 
and they standing over, shooting their arrows into 
it. Baby was not killed, but thrown forward under 
one of the horses, and I had just taken a step or so 
tow^ard him, when an Indian, who seemed to be the 
chief, lifted him by the dress to his saddle. I think 
his first intention was to carry him w'ith them, but, see- 
ing some of our neighbors hurrying toward us, they 
struck the baby with a hatchet, and hurled him to the 
ground. At the instant they struck him, he was 
looking back at me with his great blue eyes wide open 
and staring with fright." 



242 BUFFALO LAND. 

And then the poor woman, having finished her 
story, began sobbing piteously. 

The Solomon had numberless tales of these ter- 
rible massacres equally as harrowing as this, and I 
could fill pages of this volume with chapters of woe 
that terminated many a family's history. The re- 
sult of these and other Indian atrocities is probably 
yet remembered throughout the entire country. Kan- 
sas well nigh rebelled against a government which 
left her unprotected. The War Department author- 
ized vigorous measures, and the Governor of the State 
raised a regiment and at its head took the field. 
Through blows from Custar and Carr, the savages 
found out, at last, that the dogs of war which they let 
loose might return to bay at their own doors. 

Two women from the Saline were carried into cap- 
tivity by the Indians, and taken as wives by two of 
their chiefs. One day Carr, at the head of his troops, 
looked down into the valley upon the encampment of 
a band especially noted for its hostilit}'', now lying in 
fancied security below him. The two white captives 
were in the wigwams. Suddenly, to the ears of the 
savages, came a murmur from the hill-side like the 
first whisper of a torrent. 

Instantly, almost, it increased to a roar, and, as they 
sprung to their feet and rushed forth, the blue M^aves 
of vengeance dashed against the village, and broke in 
showers of leaden spray upon them. Mercy put no 
shield between them and that annihilating tempest. 
Every savage in the number was a fiend, and, as a 
band, they had long been the scourge of the border. 
Their hands were yet red with the blood of the 



RESCUES BY THE MILITARY. 243 

massacres upon the Saline and Solomon, and white 
women toiled in the wigwams of their husbands' 
murderers. One of the captives, Mrs. Daley, was 
killed by the savages, to prevent rescue ; the other 
was saved, and restored to her husband. 

Somewhat later, two women from the Solomon 
were taken captive, one of them being a bride of 
but four months who had recently come out with her 
3'oung husband from the State of Xew York. Cus- 
tar seized some chiefs and, with noosed lariats dang- 
ling before their eyes, bade them send and have 
those prisoners brought in, or suffer the penalties. 
Indians have an unconquerable prejudice against be- 
ing hung, as it prevents their spirits entering the 
happy hunting grounds, and the captives were 
promptly sent to Custar's camp. We afterward saw 
one of them, Mrs. Morgan, on the Solomon. What 
an agony must have been hers, as she came in sight 
of her old home, and the memory of her wrongs since 
leaving it, rose anew before her! 

But to return to the history of our emigrants. Af- 
ter the murders, Mr. Sydney and his daughters aban- 
doned their farms, and with the same wagon and 
oxen which two years before had brought the family 
out from Ohio, they started for the recently discov- 
ered mines in New Mexico. The journey was te- 
dious, and, when at length arrived there, he found 
but little gold, and even less relief from his mighty 
sorrow. The old home, with its graves, beckoned 
him back, and thither he was now returning to 
spend his remaining days, unless, as he laconically 
stated, some one had "jumped the claim." Lest my 



244 BUFFALO LAND. 

readers toward the risino- sun should not clearlv un- 
derstand the okl gentleman's meaning, I ought per- 
haps to explain that, under existing laws, a " Home- 
steader " can not be absent from his land over six 
months at any time, without forfeiting his title, and 
rendering it liable to occupancy by other parties. It 
was already two days over the allotted period, he 
said. But the oxen were thin, and he finally de- 
cided to rest with us until the next morning, and then 
push forward. 

Flora, the younger daughter, was a blooming West- 
ern girl of a thoroughly practical turn, and a coun- 
selor on whose advice the father and sister evidently 
relied greatly. The Professor assured me confiden- 
tially that evening, and with much more than his 
wonted enthusiasm on such a subject, that she pre- 
ferred the language of the rocks to that of fashion 
plates. She had even disputed one of his statements, 
he said, and vanquished him by producing the proof 
from a well-worn scientific work — one of a dozen 
books carefully wrapped up and stowed away with 
other goods in the wagon. 

A novel accomplishment which the young lady 
possessed was that of being an excellent rifle shot, 
and it afforded us all considerable merriment when 
she challenged Muggs to a trial of skill, and, produc- 
ing a target rifle, utterly defeated him. Such a wo- 
man as that, the Professor said, was safe on the fron- 
tier; she could fight her own way and clear her 
vicinity of savages, whenever necessary, as well as 
any of us. 

We did not wish our emigrant maiden aught but 



SACHEM DISGUSTED. 245 

what she was, and were well pleased with the romance 
of her visit. For the nonce, she was our queen ; the 
rough ox-wagon was her throne, and the great plains 
her ample domain. In sober truth, she might justly 
challenge our esteem and admiration. Here was one 
of the gentler sex willing to make divorce of happi- 
ness, that she might minister to a half-crazed father 
and mourning sister, and who, for their sake, chose 
to wander through a country which might at any mo- 
ment become to them the valley of the shadow of 
death. In the presence of such heroism, what right 
had we, though bruised and tired, to complain ? No 
wonder the Professor took early occasion to tell us 
that she was a noble woman, an honor to her sex. 

This emigrant wagon, with its wee bit of domestic 
life, was a pleasant object to all of us out there on the 
desert, with the single exception of Alderman Sa- 
chem. That worthy member of our party avoided 
its vicinity, as if a plague spot had there seized 
upon the valley. "I did think," he exclaimed, 
dividing glances that were quite the reverse of com- 
plimentary between the Professor and Shamus— " I 
did think that we had got out of the latitude of spoon- 
ing. We have n't had a digestible mouthful since 
they came in sight. A love-struck Irishman can 
neither eat, himself, or let others." 

But Shamus was too happy to heed the remark ; 
for the first time since starting, he seemed perfectly 
contented. An Irish girl, the like of Mary, and de- 
voted enough to follow her old master through such 
adversity, seemed Dobeen's beau ideal of the lovely 
and lovable in the sex. The valley became for him 



246 BUFFALO LAND. 

the brightest spot upon earth. He would have been 
content there to court and cook, I think, during the 
remainder of his natural life. Mary was shy, and 
Shamus was bold, but it was quite apparent that 
both enjoyed the situation immensely. 

Although the little party stayed but a day, their 
departure seemed to leave quite a void in the valley. 
The most noticeable results to us were some errors in 
cooking and a slackness in the prosecution of scien- 
tific investigations. 

Mr. Sydney gave us a hearty invitation to visit 
him upon the Solomon, if our wanderings took us that 
way, and our prophetic souls, with a common instinct, 
told all of us that the Professor would recognize a 
call of science in that direction. By a look and a 
smile from a maiden, the Philosopher, deeply sunken 
in the primary formation, had been drawn to the sur- 
face of the modern, a result which fashionable society 
had more than once striven in vain to brins; about. 
Miss Flora certainly bid fair to become a favorite 
pupil of his, were the opportunity only offered. 

This maiden of the plains was a new character. 
The beautiful heroine mentioned in most Western 
novels as having penetrated the Indian country, is 
either the daughter of " once wealthy parents," or 
the heiress of a noble family and stolen by gypsies 
for reward or revenge. It was the first appearance 
that I could recall of a farmer's girl in a position 
where kidnapping Indians and a frantic lover could 
so easily appear, and by opportune conjunction weave 
the plot of a soul-harrowing romance. 

Another evening in camp was spent in writing and 



A DRENCHED GOTHAMITE. 247 

story-telling. The fire was getting low, when Sachem 
rose to his feet and called to Shamus. "Dobeen," 
said he, "your country folks are always handy with 
the sticks. Let's go for wood, and have a fire that 
will warm up the witches on their broomsticks and 
send them flying off to the clouds, to get cool." We 
watched the pair go out of sight. Knowing well the 
habits of Tammany, we all felt sure that, though he 
might find the load, Irish shoulders would have to 
bear it back to camp. 

Scarcely three minutes had elapsed, when out of 
the timber, with garments as wet as water could make 
them and dripping fast, a fat form came shivering to 
our fire. Our alderman had taken a night bath in 
the creek— an adventure which he thus related in his 
own peculiar way : 

" Below us in the woods is a big beaver pond, I 
don't know how deep. I seemed an hour going down, 
and did n't touch bottom then. I was fooled by the 
moon. (To be expected, though, as she 's a female ! ) 
A few of her beams, thrown down through the trees, 
glittered on the water like drift wood. That sort of 
beams make poor timber for bridges, but I didn't 
know it then as well as I do now. One of them went 
from bank to bank, and I took it for a log, and got a 
ducking. How frightened I was, though, when my 
feet touched water and my body went, with a swash, 
right under it ! I opened my mouth to shout and the 
water rushed in, and I was like a vessel sinking with 
open hatches. I took in so much, I was afraid I'd 
be waterlogged and never come up. I did, though, 
and found that rascally Irishman throwing sticks at 



248 BUFFALO LAND. 

my head, and telling me to hold on to them. I told 
him to do that thing himself, and finally climbed 
ashore." 

We afterward sought out our newly-found neigh- 
bors, the beavers, finding their pond a short distance 
below us on the creek, and a little lower down the 
dam itself. Many more trees had been cut for the 
latter than were used in its construction, several hav- 
ing been abandoned when almost ready to fall. We 
noticed that the butts of the prostrated trees were 
sharpened down gradually like the point of a lead- 
pencil, but both ways, instead of one, so that a tree 
cut nearly through met from above and below at the 
point of breaking, like the waist of an hour glass. 
This dam was most interesting to all of us, since it 
seemed so much to resemble the work of man. In 
this waste place of the earth, it really seemed almost 
like company, and we felt a strong desire to have a 
friendly conference with the builders. But these had 
formed this reservoir for the express purpose that in 
its depths they might escape intrusion, and now the 
whole regiment of engineers seemed asleep in bar- 
racks. Still our men secured a few very fine ones by 
trapping. 

It appeared that the beavers were a vacillating 
set of architects, as all the trees which stood near 
the water and leaned over it at all, were gnawed 
more or less, and many of them left when almost 
ready to fall. The position of the dam had evidently 
been determined by the tree which fell first. From 
the reckless manner in which they had slashed 
around with their teeth, it was pertinently suggested 



A NAP WITH THE BEAVERS. 249 

that this colony must have obtained from the beaver 
congress a government subsidy. Having been ac- 
quainted with the art of buikling before man mas- 
tered it, the beaver race also probably understood 
how to do it at little personal expense. 

The beaver appears to be distributed in consider- 
able numbers all over the western half of Kansas, 
although the spring floods sweep away their dams 
almost every season. Once afterward, when lost on 
the plains for a day, I came across a beaver dam. 
Several hours of anxious suspense in the solitude, fear- 
ing to meet man lest he should prove a savage, begot 
a strange feeling of companionship when I came in 
sight of the rude structure of logs. If not civiliza- 
tion, it was a close imitation of it, and I laid down 
and fell into a refreshing sleep, soothed, in the fan- 
tasies of Dreamland, with the whir of looms and hum 
of factory life. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE CHASE — THE VALLEY OP THE SALINE — QUEER 'cOONS A 

bison's game of bluff IN PURSUIT ALONGSIDE THE GAME — FIRING FROM 

THE SADDLE A CHARGE AND A PANIC FALSE HISTORY AGAIN — GOING FOR 

AmiUKITION — THE PROFESSOR'S LETTER — DISROBING THE VICTIM. 

THE early dawn of Wednesday morning saw us 
again astir. There was the same creeping of 
mist out of the valley to join the darkness as it fled 
from the plains above, and the same revealing of 
thousands of shaggy forms silently feeding in the 
distance. This time our beasts and our bodies were 
both in excellent condition for the chase. Joints gain 
and lose stiffness quickly in such a life. One morn- 
ing the hunter feels as if the mill of life, though he 
turn its crank ever so slowly, had broken every bone 
in his body; twenty-four hours later may find him 
elastic and buoyant, as if youth had torn away from 
the embrace of the dead past and was with him again 
in all its pristine vigor. In the present case, too, 
that friend of early hours and foe of sleepy eyes, the 
coffee bean had done its work for us grandly. 

Ten horsemen comprised the strength of the party 
which rode out of the valley just as daylight was 
coming into it. One of the hostlers and a Mexican 
were left in camp, the remainder of our force accom- 
panying us, with a couple of wagons to bring in the 

(250) 



AMPHIBIOUS 'COOXS. 251 

game. At his earnest solicitation, Sliamus was per- 
mitted to abandon his post of duty temporarily, and 
go along also, with the miderstanding that he was to 
select choice pieces from the first suitable game we 
might bring down, and, returning to camp, be ready 
for our arrival with an ample dinner. 

As we rode down the valley of Silver Creek, gangs 
of wild turkeys occasionally came out of the narrow 
skirt of timber, and, running along before us for short 
distances, re-entered it, and were lost to view again. 
IS'ever having been hunted, they seemed destitute of 
the timidity and cunning which are the usual charac- 
teristics of this bird. 

Twenty minutes' ride brought us to the Saline, the 
basin of which we found to be half a mile or there- 
abouts in width, and presenting a scene of great des- 
olation. We were something like two hundred feet 
below the table-lands which came down to the narrow 
valley in barren canyons and masses of rock. The 
stream itself is narrow, with less than two feet of 
water running swiftly over the sands, and along its 
banks, at intervals, a few dwarfed cottonwood trees. 
Such was the Valley of the Saline at this point ; yet 
thirty miles below, our men told us, the valley opened 
out into rich bottom lands, and was famous for its 
beauty. 

While in the act of crossing, we came suddenly 
upon four small animals playing and fishing in the 
shallow water. With an exclamation of astonish- 
ment, the Professor had his glasses out in a moment. 
The guide informed us they were only 'coons, and such 
they were sure enough, with the peculiar color and 



252 BUFFALO LAND. 

distinctive rings that made it impossible, on second 
look, to mistake them for any thing else. Truly, Na- 
ture seemed full of eccentricities in this remarkable 
region. The raccoons of natural history have always 
aifected trees, and been considered, ])ar excellence^ 
creatures of the forest. I scarcely think the Profes- 
sor would have been surprised, at that moment, to 
know that hereabouts fish were in the habit of climb- 
ing around in bushes, or stealing corn. 

When they heard us, the four little fellows scam- 
pered away a few stops, and disappeared in some 
holes in the bank, in executing which maneuver one 
of them swam a yard or two across a deep spot, 
making good progress. We learned from our men 
that small colonies of these animals are frequentl}'' 
found along treeless creeks on the plains, living in 
the banks, and fishing for a living, by grasping the 
minnows and frogs, as they pass over the shallow 
places. 

From the river we directed our course toward a 
deep canyon which, opening toward us as if the bluff 
had been riven asunder by some great convulsion of 
Nature, at its further end reached the level of the 
plains, and oifered us an easy ascent. Evidence of 
volcanic action appeared along the canyon in the form 
of vitrified fragments and occasional masses of lava 
resembling rock. 

The guide called our attention to an object in the 
ravine some distance ahead, which was enveloped in 
a cloud of dust. It was a bufi^alo, he said, indulging 
in a game of bluff. This statement not appearing 
very clear to our non-gambling party, he explained 



A DASH AFTER BUFFALO. 253 

that the old fellow was " butting against the bank, as 
if he was going to break it all to pieces, when in real- 
ity he had no show at all." 

As we could not approach nearer without frighten- 
ing him, we stood still for a few minutes and watched 
him. He would back fifteen or twenty yards from 
the bluif, paw the ground for an instant, and then 
fling himself headlong against the wall of earth with 
a tremendous force, as was abundantly testified by the 
great clouds of dust that would rise in the air. For 
a moment afterward he would continue violently 
hooking the soil, as if the bowels of the earth were 
those of an adversary. We afterward repeatedly 
saw bulls engaged in this exercise. It is to the buf- 
falo what the training school is to the prize-fighter, 
a developing of brute force for future conflicts. 

The shock of such charges as we witnessed, if made 
by a domestic ox, would have broken his neck. Even 
our bison friend finally overdid the matter. Either 
because his foot tripped or the blow glanced, upon 
one of his charges, he fell down on his fore legs, and 
then rolled completely over. We thought this a good 
time to push forward, and accordingly did so at a gal- 
lop. Whether thinking himself knocked down by a 
foe, or because he heard the rattling of hoofs, we 
could not determine, but he suddenly sprang to his 
feet, whirled his shaggy head into bearing upon us, 
then turned and set away at full speed up the can- 
yon, toward the plains above. The order was given 
to ply spur and close in upon him, if possible, or he 
would set the herds above in motion. 

It was a mad ride that we had for the next ten 



254 BUFFALO LAND. 

minutes — across beds of gravel, among huge bowlders, 
and once or twice over great fissures in the earth 
which chilled my blood as I took a sort of bird's- 
eye view of their depths. In a lumbering run on 
ahead of us went the frightened bull, his feet occa- 
sionally sending back dashes of pebbles, while behind 
him rattled such a clattering of hoofs that the poor 
brute, if he could think at all, must have imagined 
he had butted open the door of Hades, and was now 
being pursued by its inmates. 

There were mishaps in this our first buffalo hunt, 
of course, and among them, Muggs dropped a stirrup, 
and was obliged to support himself afterward on one 
foot — an awkward matter, resulting from his incon- 
venient English saddle, one of the kind which com- 
pels one, half the time, to sustain the whole body by 
the stirrups alone. We gained upon the game 
steadily, though no particular member of our party 
excelled as leader, first one being ahead and then the 
other. Cynocephalus developed wonderfully, and 
kept well up with his better conditioned neighbors. 

What a magnificent prize for the hunter rushed 
on before us, swinging his ponderous head from side 
to side, for the purpose of getting better rear views — 
such an ungainly and shaggy animal, a perfect marvel 
of magnificent disproportions ! It is well enough to 
go to Africa and hunt lions, and describe their ma- 
jestic, flowing manes ; but this bison, in mad flight 
ahead of us, could have furnished hair and mane 
enough to fit out half a dozen lions. At close quar- 
ters, too, he was fully as dangerous as the king of 
beasts. 



A BOMBARDMENT FROM THE SADDLE. 255 

We were close at his heels when the level of the 
plain was reached, and pursuer and pursued shot out 
upon it together. A large herd, feeding not five hun- 
dred yards away, was speedily in full flight north- 
ward. "A stern chase is a long chase," is no less 
true in buffalo hunting than in nautical matters. Af- 
ter considerable experience in the sport, I would rec- 
ommend amateurs to get as near their game as pos- 
sible before startinir, and then trv their horses' full 
metal. Once by the side of the game, he can keep 
there to the end. And so, after a terrible chase, 
when at times we had almost despaired of overtaking 
the old fellow, we now found it easy to keep along- 
side. 

Our bull was a huge one, even among his species, 
and in such moments of excitement the imagination 
seems to have a trick of entering the chambers of the 
eye, and sliding its mirrors into a sort of double fo- 
cus arrangement. With blood boiling until my heart 
seemed to bob up and down on its surface, I found 
myself riding parallel with the brute, and had I never 
seen him afterward, would have been almost willing 
to make oath that his size could be represented only 
by throwing a covering of buffalo robes over an ele- 
phant. 

Every one in the party was firing, some having 

dropped their reins to use their carbines, and others 

yet guiding their horses with one hand, while they fired 

their holster revolvers with the other. Shooting from 

the saddle, with a horse going at full speed, needs 

practice to enable one to hit any thing smaller than a 

mammoth. You point the weapon, but at the instant 
14 



256 BUFFALO LAND. 

your finger presses the trigger, the muzzle may be 
directed toward the zenith or the earth. An expe- 
rienced hunter steadies his arm, not allowing it to 
take part in the motion of his body, no matter how 
rough the latter may be. But we were not expe- 
rienced hunters, and so, although such exclamations 
as, " That told ! " " Mine went through ! " and " Per- 
fectly riddled! " were almost as numerous as the bul- 
lets, it was easy to see that the flying monster re- 
mained unharmed. 

From the first, Mr, Colon had fired without taking 
any aim whatever, and so it happened that his gun, 
in describing its half circle consequent upon the 
rising and falling motion of the horse, at length went 
off at the proper moment, and we heard the thud of 
the ball as it struck. Dropping his head into posi- 
tion as if for a charge, the buffalo whirled sharply to 
the right, and passing right between our horses, made 
off toward the main herd. But he soon slowed down 
to a walk, and as we again came up with him, we 
could see the blood trickling from his nose, which he 
held low like a sick ox. 

In the excitement of the chase, and perhaps from 
being well blown before coming near the buffalo, our 
horses had hitherto shown no fear, but now, as the old 
bull stood there in all his savage hugeness, and the 
smell of blood tainted the air, they pushed, jostled, 
snorted, and pranced, so that it required all our ef- 
forts to keep them from downright flight. Even Do- 
been's donkey kept his rider uncertain whether his 
destiny was to seek the ground or abide in the sad- 
dle. 



THE BULL TURNS UPON US. 257 

The brute stood facing us, perhaps fifty yards off, 
his eyes rolling wildly from pain and fury, and the 
blood flowing freely through his nostrils. 

We were waiting patiently for him to die, when 
suddenly the head went into position, like a Roman 
battering ram, and down he came upon us. We were 
utterly routed. Xo spur was necessary to prompt 
the horses, and I doubt if their former owners had 
ever known what latent speed their hides concealed. 
The whole thing was so sudden there was no time 
for thought, and all that I can remember is a confused 
sort of idea that each animal was going off at a tre- 
mendous pace, with the rider devoting his energies 
to sticking on. After the first few jumps, we were 
no longer an organized company, each brute taking 
his own course, and carrying us, like fragments of an 
explosion, in different directions. A marked excep- 
tion, however, was ^luggs' mule, which for the only 
time in his life, seemed unwilling to run away. Af- 
ter being the first to start, and assisting the others to 
stampede, he stopped suddenly short, depositing his 
rider something like ten yards ahead of him, in a 
manner quite the reverse of gentle. 

We did not stop running as soon as we might have 
done. And I here enter protest against the nonsense 
indulged in on one point by most of the novelists who 
educate people in buffalo lore. When we halted, 
there stood the bull not thirty yards from the spot 
where he had first stopped, although we had located 
him, throughout more than half a mile's ride but a 
few feet from our horses' tails, and at times had even 
imagined we heard his deep panting. This mortify- 



258 BUFFALO LAND. 

ina" record would have been saved us had we known 
that a buffalo's charges never extend beyond a short 
distance. Either his adversary or his attack is speed- 
ily terminated. He does not pursue, in the " long, 
deep gallop" style at all. Yet I scarcely remember a 
sino-le instance mentioned in those old books of west- 
ern adventure, in which a buffalo's charge was for 
a less distance than a mile. In one case that I now 
recall, the race was nip and tuck between man and 
bison for over an hour, and the biped was finally en- 
abled to save his life only by leaving the saddle and 
swinging into a tree ! Such stories are simply bal- 
derdash. 

As soon as possible after checking our horses, we 
rode back toward the wagon and the game, seeing 
in the former, the grinning faces of our men. The 
buffalo Avas still on his feet, but while we looked he 
slowly sunk to his knees, like an ox lying down to 
rest, and then quietly reposed on his belly, in the same 
attitude one sees domestic cattle assume when wish- 
ing a quiet chew of the cud. Had it not been for his 
bloody nose and wild eyes, he would have looked as 
peaceful as any bovine that ever breathed. 

Wishing to put the poor brute out of misery, we 
approached closer, and several of us dismounted, 
when a general fire was opened. Like a cat, the 
old fellow was on his feet again almost instantly. 
By a singular coincidence, our entire party just then 
discovered that we were out of ammunition, and in a 
body started for the wagon, to get some, Muggs af- 
terward assured us that, at the time, he had just got 
his hand in, " so that every shot told, you know," and 




;,«iiiiifi'lii N#''r4uviw' '"''Vrvvr 



THE PROFESSOR ENTHRONED. 261 

I have the authority of all for the deliberate state- 
ment that the bull would have been riddled before 
moving a foot had not the cartridges suddenly given 
out. 

The effort of getting up had sent the mass of blood 
collected from inward bleeding surging out of the buf- 
falo's nose, and, as we looked back, lie was tottering 
feeblv, and an instant afterward fell to the ground. 
There was no doubt now of his death, and we 
swarmed upon and around him. lie was an im- 
mense old fellow, and his hide fairly covered with 
the scars of past battles. Inasmuch as this was our 
first trophy, it was determined to take his skin, and 
we forthwith seated the Professor on his great shaggy 
neck, with the horns forming arms for an impromptu 
hunter's throne. From thence he wrote upon leaves 
from his note-book a letter to his class at the East, 
which he permitted me to copy. I introduce it here, 
as showing that the blood of even a savan i)ul- 
sates warmly amid such circumstances as now sur- 
rounded us. 



" On a Buffalo, in the 
Year of my Happiness, One 



.} 



^^ Bear Class — I know the staid and quiet habits 
that characterize all of you, and that you are not 
given to hard riding and bufifjilo hunting. Yet this 
prairie air, with its rich fragrance and wild freeness, 
would give a new circulation to the blood of each one 
of you. Like a gale at sea, the breeze sweeps against 
one's cheeks, and the great billows of land rise on 
every side, as mountains of troubled ocean. Why 



262 BUFFALO LAND. 

not desert the city and lose yourself for awhile in 
this great grand waste ? Antelope are bounding and 
buffalo running on every side of us, while villages 
of prairie dogs bark at the flying herds. One grows 
in self-estimation after breathing this air, and, feel- 
ing that safety and life depend on his own exertions, 
learns to place reliance upon the powders wdiich Na- 
ture has given him, with manly independence of arti- 
fical laws and police. 

" While I am writing, the first victim of our prow- 
ess, a magnificent specimen of the American bison, is 
being skinned by our suite, the robe from which, when 
prepared, we intend sending you. The men say it 
must be dressed by some of the civilized Indians on 
the reserves, as the white man's tanning injures the 
value. 



" The robe is now off, and half a ton of fat meat 
lies exposed. We shall only take the hind quarters, 
a portion of the hump, and the tongue. How glad 
the famishing wretches in the tenement houses of the 
city would be for an opportunity to pick those long 
ribs which w^e leave for the wolves ! His horns are 
somewhat battered, but we have cut them off, to sup- 
plant hooks on a future hat-rack. One of the men 
has just taken a large musket ball from the animal's 
flank. That shot must have been received years ago, 
as the ball is an old fashioned one and is thickly en- 
cased in fat. 

" The geological formation of the country is very 
interesting. I expect to examine the same more 



THE LETTER CONCLUDED. 263 

thoroughly after we have studied the animals trav- 
ersing its surface. Yesterday, we had in camp a 
fiimily from the Solomon, who were sufferers some 
months since from the fearful Indian massacre there. 
Their story was an exceedingly interesting one, 
though very sad. We shall visit them if duty calls 
that way. I must close. The men have thrown the 
skin in the wagon, flesh side up, and deposited the 
meat upon it, and all are now ready for further con- 
quests. 

" Your sincere friend and instructor, 

" H . " 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

BTILL HUNTING — DARK OBJECTS AGAINST THE HORIZON — THE RED MAN AGAIN 

RETREAT TO CAMP — PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE SHAKING HANDS WITH DEATH 

MR. colon's BUGS — THE EMBASSADORS A NEW ALARM— MORE INDIANS TER- 
RIFIC BATTLE BETWEEN PAWNEES AND CHEYENNES THEIR MODE OF FIGHTING 

GOOD HORSEMANSHIP A SCIENTIFIC PARTY AS SEXTONS — DITTO AS SURGEONS 

CAMPS OF THE COMBATANTS — STEALING AWAY — AN APPARITION. 

OUR farther conquests for that day, it was de- 
cided, could best be effected by still hunting. 
The guide had suggested that, if we desired to fill our 
wagon with meat and get back to camp before night, 
we might profitably adopt the practice of old hunters, 
who, when they pursue bison, " mean business." 
The new tactics consisted of infantry evolutions, and 
required a dismounting of the cavalry. We were to 
crawl up to the herds, through ravines, and from 
those ambuscades open fire. 

A mile away buffiilo wer« feeding in large numbers, 
and our men pointed out several swales into which 
we could sink from the surface of the plains, and, fol- 
lowing the winding lines, find cover until emerging 
among the herd. But while we were still gazing at 
the latter, sharp and distinct against the northern 
horizon appeared other objects, evidently mounted 
men, and men in that direction meant Indians. It 

(264) 



A CHANGE IX THE PROGRAMME. 265 

is wonderful how quickly one's ardor disappears, 
when, from being the hunter, he becomes the hunted. 
Our only desire now was, in Sachem's language, "a 
hankering arter camp," which we at once proceeded 
to gratify. 

Back again with the remainder of our party, we 
felt quite safe, Indians of the plains seldom attack 
an armed body which is prepared for tliem ; and then 
there had been no recent demonstrations of hostility. 
On the other hand, no massacre had yet occurred 
upon the frontier which was not unexpected. The 
whole life of many of these nomads has been a cata- 
logue of surprises. It was Artemus Ward, I think, 
who knew mules that would be good for weeks, for 
the sake of getting a better opportunity of kicking a 
man. These savages will do the same for the sake 
of killing one. 

Many an armed man, fully capable of defending 
himself, has thus been thrown off his guard, and sent 
suddenly into eternity. The cunning savage, seeing 
his foe prepared, approaches with signs of friendsliip, 
and cries of "How, how?" — Indian and short for 
"How are you? " Their extended hands meet, and 
as the palms touch, the pale-face shakes hands with 
death ; for, while his fingers are held fast in that 
treacherous clasp, some other savage brains him from 
behind, or sheaths a knife in his heart, and the be- 
trayed white, jerked forward with a fiendish laugh, 
kisses the grass with bloody lips. We had been re- 
peatedly warned by our guides that, when in the 
minority, the only safe way to hold councils with the 
Indians is at rifle range. Even if bound by treaty, a 



266 BUFFALO LATs^D. 

knowledge that they can take your scalp without 
losing their own, is like binding a thief with threads 
of gold : the very power which should restrain, is in 
itself a temptation. 

Our little camp soon bristled all over with defiance, 
a sort of mammoth porcupine presenting points at 
every angle for the enemy's consideration. Our ani- 
mals were put safely under cover among the trees, 
where they could not be easily stampeded ; the 
wagons were ranged in a crescent, forming excellent 
defense for our exposed side ; and pockets were hur- 
riedly filled with ammunition. 

From the tragic to the comic, as from the sublime 
to the ridiculous, there is but a single step. Sachem, 
while excitedly thrusting a handful of cartridges into 
Mr. Colon's pockets, suddenly drew back his hand 
with an expression of alarm, bringing with it a whole 
assortment of bugs. One of the pocket-cases of our 
entomologist had opened, and the inmates, impris- 
oned but that morning, were now swarming over our 
fat friend's fingers, and up his arm, which he was 
shaking vigorously. There they were — rare bugs 
and plethoric spiders, together with one lively 
young lizard — all clinging to the limb which had 
brouoht them rescue from their cavernous cell with 
more tenacity than if they had been stuck on with 
Spalding's glue. Poor Sachem! While he danced and 
fumed, and gave his opinion of bug-men generall}^, 
Mr. Colon cried — " 0, my bugs, my beautiful bugs ! " 
and grasped eagerly at his vanishing treasures. Our 
alderman disengaged himself at length from his nox- 
ious visitors, and meanwhile the other members of the 



AX OLD ACQUAINTANCE RE-APPEARS. 267 

party, having provided themselves, poured into the 
other pocket of the grieved naturalist a further sup- 
ply of cartridges, thereby utterly annihilating the re- 
mainder of his collection. 

Our preparations being concluded, and still no 
signs of the Indians, we sat down to dinner. Sha- 
mus was terribly agitated, and the shades of dyspep- 
sia hovered over his cooking ; but, although the coffee 
was muddy and the meat burned, we were in no 
mood to take exceptions. There was considerable 
determination visible on the faces of all our party. 
The red man was getting to be as sore a trouble to us 
as the black man had been to politicians, and hav- 
ing already lost a day on his account, we were now 
fully resolved to hold our ground. We had seen the 
savage in all the terrors of his war-paint, and felt a 
very comforting degree of assurance that a dozen cool- 
headed hunters, mostly armed with breech-loaders, 
possessed the odds. 

At length, along the edge of the breaks beyond the 
Saline, a dark object appeared, followed by another 
and then another in rapid succession, until forty un- 
mistakable Indians came in sight, and were bearing 
directly toward us, following the tracks of our wagons. 
Half a mile off they halted, and then we saw one big 
fellow ride forward alone. His form seemed a fami- 
liar one, and soon it revealed itself as that of our late 
friend, White Wolf. Now we had, but a few days 
before, in the space of four brief hours, concluded at 
least forty treaties of peace with this chief and his 
drunken braves ; yet, remembering past history, we 
should have wanted at least as many more treaties, 



268 BUFFALO LAND. 

before taking the chances of having one of them 
kept, and admitting the painted heathens before us 
to full confidence and fellowship. 

As the leader of our party, it devolved upon the 
Professor to go forward and meet the chief, which he 
promptly did, taking along our man who was acting 
in Cody's place as guide, to assist him in compre- 
hending the savage's wishes. Midway between us 
the respective embassadors met. We heard the 
chief's loud " How, how? " and saw their hand-shak- 
ing, and could not help wondering what the Philoso- 
pher's class would say, could they have beheld their 
honored tutor officiating as a frontispiece for such a 
savage background. 

White Wolf stated that he had been out after Paw- 
nees ; he could not find them, and so "Indian felt 
heap bad!" Just at this instant a loud, quick cry 
came from his knot of warriors, who were now mani- 
festing the wildest excitement, lashing up their po- 
nies, stringing their bows, and making other prepara- 
tions as if for a fight. Without a word, the chief 
turned and ran for dear life toward his band, while 
the Professor and our guide wheeled and ran for dear 
life toward us. Seldom has the man of science made 
such progress as did the respected leader of our ex- 
pedition then. The guide called, " Cover us with 
vour guns!'' — a command which we immediately pro- 
ceeded to obey, evidently to the intense alarm of the 
Professor, for so completely were they covered, that 
I doubt if either would have escaped, had we been 
called upon to fire. 

Our first thought had been a suspicion of treachery, 



A TEAGEDY IN PROSrECT. 269 

but we now saw that the Cheyennes had faced toward 
the hills, and, following their gaze, we beheld coming 
down their trail, and upon the tracks of our wagon, 
another band of mounted Indians. It soon became 
clear to us that the Pawnees, the Wolf's failure to 
find whom had made that noble red man feel " heap 
bad," were coming to find him. We counted them 
riding along, twenty-five in all — inferior in numbers, 
it was true, but superior to the Cheyennes in respect 
to their arms, so that, upon the whole, the two forces 
now about to come together were not unevenly 
matched. The Pawnees live beyond the Platte, and 
for years have been friendly to the whites, even serv- 
ing in the wars against the other tribes on several oc- 
casions. 

What a stir there was in the late peaceful valley ! 
The buffalo that were lately feeding along the brow 
of the plateau had all fled, and here right before us 
were sixty-five native Americans, bent upon killing 
each other off, directly under the eyes of their tradi- 
tional destroyer, the white man. The Professor said 
it forcibly suggested to his mind some of the fearful 
gladiatorial tragedies of antiquity. Sachem re- 
sponded that he was n't much of a Roman himself, 
but he could say that in this show he was very glad 
we occupied the box-seat, the safest place anywhere 
around there ; and we all decided that it must be a 
face-to-face fight, in which neither party dare run, as 
that would be disorganization and destruction. 

It was strange to see these wild Ishmaelites of the 
plains warring against each other. Over the wide 
territory, broad enough for thousands of such pitiful 



270 BUFFALO LAND. 

tribes, tliey had sought out each other for a bloody 
duel, like two gangs of pirates in combat on mid- 
ocean ; and, like them, if either or both were killed, 
the world would be all the better for it. It was 
clearly what would be called, on Wall street, a 
"brokers' war," in which, when the operators are 
preying on each other, outsiders are safe. 

While we were looking, a wild, disagreeable shout 
came up from the twenty -five Pawnees, as they 
charged down into the valley, which was promptly 
responded to by fierce yells from the forty Cheyennes. 

" Let it be our task to bury the dead," said the 
Professor, looking toward the wagon in which rested 
his geological spade. " It is extremely problematical 
whether any of these red men will go out of the val- 
ley alive." 

And thus another wonderful change had come over 
the spirit of our dream. From being a scientific and 
sporting expedition, we had been suddenly meta- 
morphosed into a gang of sextons, who, in a valley 
among the buffaloes, were witnessing an Indian bat- 
tle, and waiting to bury the slain. 

As the Pawnees came down at full gallop, the 
Cheyennes lashed up their ponies to meet them. 
Then came the crack of pistols, and a perfect storm 
of arrows passed and crossed each other in mid-air. 
As the combatants met, we could see them poking 
lances at each other's ribs for an instant, and then 
each side retreated to its starting point. Charge first 
was ended. We gazed over the battle-field to count 
the dead, but to our surprise none appeared. 

A few minutes were spent by both parties in a 






! I: 



li 




THE FRAY IN PROGRESS. 273 

general overhauling of their equipments, and then 
another charge was made. They rode across each 
other's fronts and around in circles, firing their 
arrows and yelling like demojis, and occasionally, 
when two combatants accidentally got close together, 
prodding away with lances. The oddest part of the 
whole terrible tragedy to us was that the charges 
looked, when closely approaching each other, as if 
they were being made by two riderless bands of wild 
ponies. 

The Indians would lie along that side of their 
horses which was turned away from the enem}^, and 
tire their pistols and shoot their arrows from under 
the animals' necks, thus leaving exposed in the sad- 
dle only that portion of the savage anatomy which 
was capable of receiving the largest number of arrows 
with results the least possibly dangerous. I noticed 
one fat old fellow whose pony carried him out of bat- 
tle with two arrows sticking in tlio portion thus un- 
protected, like pins in a cushion. lie still kept up 
his yelling, but it struck me that there was a touch 
of anguish in the tone, and I felt confident that he 
would not sit down and tell his children of the bat- 
tle for some time to come. 

We saw one exhibition of horsemanship which es- 
pecially excited our admiration. An arrow struck a 
Cheyenne on the forehead, glancing oif, but stunning 
him so with its iron point, that, after swaying in the 
saddle for an instant, he fell tp the earth. Another 
of the tribe, who was following at full speed, leaned 
toward the ground, and checking his pony but 
slightly, seized the prostrate warrior by the waist- 



274 BUFFALO LAND. 

band, and, flinging him across his horse m front of 
the saddle, rode on out of the battle. 

For several hours — indeed until the sun was low in 
the heavens and the ghadows crept into the valley — 
this terrible fray continued, the charging, shouting, 
and firing being kept up until both combatants had 
worked down the river so far that we could no longer 
see them. 

It was approaching the dusk of evening Avhen 
White Wolf and his band rode back. We counted 
them and found the original forty still alive. The 
chief assured us they had killed "heap Pawnees," 
whereupon some of us sallied forth to visit the bat- 
tle-field. Three dead ponies lay there, and with a 
disagreeable sensation we looked around, expecting to 
discover the mangled riders near by. IN'ot one was 
visible, however, nor even the least sign of their 
blood. The grass was not sodden with gore, nor did 
a single rigid arm or aboriginal toe stick up in the 
gathering gloom. Neither the wolves or buzzards 
gathered over the field, and slowly the conviction 
dawned upon us that Indian battles, like some other 
things, are not always what they seem. 

As we turned again toward camp, the Professor, 
dragging his spade after him, suggested that, in ac- 
cordance with the reputed habits of these savages, 
the Pawnees had perhaps carried oif their dead. 
But at the instant, only a short distance down the 
river, the camp-fire of that miserable and all but 
annihilated band glimmered forth. It was decidedly 
too bold and cheerful for the use of twenty-five 
ghosts, and we knew then that White Wolf had lied. 



A DISAPPOINTED SAVANT. 275 

That valorous chieftain we found limping around 
outside our wagons, with a lance-cut in one of his 
legs, while several of his warriors had arrow-wounds, 
and one a pistol-shot, none of the injuries, however, 
being dangerous. The Pawnees probably suffered 
with equal severity ; and this was the sum total of 
the day's frightful carnage — the entire result of all 
the fierce display that we had witnessed. 

Not long afterward, in front of a Government fort, 
and in plain sight of the garrison, a battle occurred 
between two large parties of rival tribes, about equal 
in numbers. Back and forth, amid furious cries and 
clouds of arrows, the hostile savages charged. Xoon 
saw the affiiir commenced, and sunset scarcely beheld 
its ending. The Government report states, if my 
memory serves me correctly, that one Indian and 
two horses were killed; and a shade of doubt still ex- 
ists among the witnesses whether that one unlucky 
warrior did not break his neck by the fall of his 
pony ! 

These savages fight on horseback, and are neither 
bold nor successful, except when the attacking party 
is overwhelming in numbers, and then the affair be- 
comes a massacre. All this knowledge came to us 
afterward, but our first introduction to it was a sur- 
prise. Kind-hearted man though he was, I think the 
resultless ending of the battle disconcerted even the 
Professor. Having nerved one's self to expect hor- 
rors, it is natural to seek, on the gloomy mirror of 
fate, some rays of glimmering light which can be 
turned to advantage. I think the Professor's rays, 

had the contest proved as sanguinary as we first antici- 
15 



276 BUFFALO LAND. 

pated, would have found their focus in some stout 
cask containing a nicel3^-pickled Pawnee or Cheyenne 
en route to a distant dissecting table. It would have 
"been rather a novel way, I have always thought, of 
sending the untutored savage to college. 

We made a requisition upon our medicine-chest, and 
dressed the wounds of the suffering warriors. White 
Wolf stripped to the waist, and, exposing his broad, 
muscular form, exhibited thirty-six scars, where, in 
different battles, lances and arrows had struck him. 
It struck us all as a rather remarkable circumstance, 
though we prudently refrained from commenting 
upon it just then, that nearly all these scars were on 
his back. 

The chief expressed great friendship for us, and I 
really believe he felt it. Sachem's stout form was 
especially the object of his admiration. Between 
these two worthies a very cordial regard seemed to 
be springing up, until White Wolf unluckily offered 
him an Indian bride and a hundred buffalo robes, if 
he would go with the band to its wigwams on the Ar- 
kansas — a proposition which disgusted our alderman 
beyond measure. Savages, sooner or later, generally 
scalp white sons-in-law, and it would be " heap good " 
for the Cheyenne to have such an opportunity always 
handy. Sachem declined the honor with all the 
dignity he could command, and carefully avoided 
" the match-making old heathen," as he termed him, 
for the remainder of the evening. 

We kept early hours that night. Guard was 
doubled, to prevent any possible treachery, and a 
sleepy party laid down to rest. The Cheyennes went 



A NEW USE FOR THE SKILLET. 277 

into camp a few hiindrecl yards up the creek, a barely 
perceptible light, looking from our tents like a fire-fly, 
marking the spot. 

When a " cold camp " is discovered on the plains, 
the experienced frontiersman can always determine 
at once whether white men or Indians made it, by 
the size of the ash-heap. The former, even when try- 
ing to make their fire a small one, will consume in 
one evening as much fuel as would last the red man 
a half-moon. The latter, putting together two or 
three bufifilo cliijis, or as many twigs, will huddle 
over them when ignited, and extract warmth and 
heat enough for cooking from a flame that could 
scarcely be seen twenty yards. 

The two opposing parties, which were now resting 
only a mile or so apart, had each tested the other's 
metal, and, as the sequel proved, found them foemen 
worthy of their steal. From the unconcealed fires in 
their respective camps, we concluded that neither 
side had any intention of attacking, or fear of being 
attacked. 

It was early in the dawn of the next morning when 
we were startled from our slumbers by a terrific cry 
from Shamus, which brought all of us to our tent- 
doors, with rifles in hand ready to do battle, in the 
shortest possible time. Looking out, we beheld our 
cook standing near the first preparations of break- 
fast, and gazing with astonished eyes toward the 
darkness under the trees, among which we heard, or 
at least imagined we heard, the stealthy steps of moc- 
casined feet. In answer to our interrogatories, Sha- 
mus stated that just as he was putting the meat in 



278 BUFFALO LAND. 

the pan, he saw the light of the fire reflected, for an 
instant, on a painted face peering out at him from be- 
hind a tree. "Faith, but I shaved the lad's head 
wid the skillet ! " said Dobeen, and sure enough we 
found that article of culinary equipment lying at the 
foot of the suspected cottonwood, badly bent from con- 
tact with something, but whether that something was 
the bark or a painted skull is known only to that 
skulking Cheyenne. 

We waited until broad daylight, but no further 
disturbance occurred, and what was strangest of all, 
the valley both above and below us seemed entirely 
destitute of either Pawnee or Cheyenne. A recon- 
noissance, which was made by the Professor, Mr. 
Colon, and our guide, developed the fact that not 
being able to steal any thing else, the savages had 
executed the difficult military maneuver of stealing 
away. Just before daybreak, the Pawnees had gone 
due north, and the Cheyennes, about the same time, 
due south. As White Wolf had expressed a cold- 
blooded intention of exterminating the remnant of 
his foes in the morning, the pitying stars may have 
taken the matter in hand and misled him ; and if so, 
how disappointed that blood-thirsty band must have 
been when their path brought them into their own 
village, instead of the Pawnee camp ! In confirma- 
tion of this astrological suggestion, I may say that 
while in Topeka I saw " stars," on several occasions, 
leading Indians in the opposite direction from that 
in which they wished to go. 

In due time our party sat down to another plenti- 
ful breakfast, which was eaten with all the more 



ONE WHITE SCORE FOR THE WOLF. 279 

relish because we had all that little world to our- 
selves again. Discussing Dobeen's apparition, we 
finally came to the unanimous conclusion that it was 
some Indian who, while his brothers stole away, had 
straggled behind, to pick up a keepsake. I think 
that hideous face among the trees never entirely 
ceased to haunt the chamber of Dobeen's memcny. 
He shied as badly as did Muggs' mule, when in 
strange timber, and was ever afterward a warm 
advocate for pitching camp on the open prairie. 

In justice to White Wolf, it should be stated that 
we afterward learned that while charging in such a 
mistaken direction after Pawnees that morning, he 
met two men from Hays City, out after buffalo 
meat. Finding that they were from the village 
which had been kind to him, he loaded their wagons 
with fat quarters, instead of filling their bodies with 
arrows, as they had first expected, and sent them 
home rejoicing. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

STALKING THE BISON BUFFALO AS OXEN EXPENSIVE POWER A BUFFALO AT A 

LUNATIC ASYLUM— THE GATEWAY TO THE HERDS — INFERNAL GRAPE-SHOT 

nature's BOMB-SHELLS — CRAWLING BEDOUINS "THAR THEY HUMP " THE 

SLAUGHTER BEGUN AN INEFFECTUAL CHARGE " KETCHING THE CRITTER " 

RETURN TO CAMP — CALVES' HEAD ON THE STOMACH — AN UNPLEASANT EPISODE 
WOLF BAITING, AND HOW IT IS DONE. 

BREAKFAST over, the day's work was planned 
out. We were desirous of loading one of our 
wagons with game, and sending it back to Hays, from 
whence the meat could be forwarded by express to 
distant friends, and serve as tidings from camp, of 
" all's well." The other wagon we decided to keep 
with us. Horseback hunting, although fine sport, 
evidently would not, in our hands, prove sufficiently 
expeditious in procuring meat. Our guide adduced 
another argument as follows : " Yer see, gents, if 
yer want ter ship meat by rail, it won't do ter run it 
eight or ten miles, like a fox, and git it all heated up. 
Ther jints must be cool, or they '11 spile." Stalking 
the bison was to be our day's sport, therefore, and we 
were speedily off, taking only the two wagons, the 
riding animals being all left in camp. Shamus pre- 
pared a lunch for us, as we did not expect to return for 
dinner before dusk. 

Eollowing the same route as the day before, we 

(280) 



AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPERIMENT. 281 

soon ascended the Saline "breaks," and emerged on 
the plains above. Looking to us as if they had not 
changed position for twenty-four hours, the buffalo 
herds still covered the face of the country, busy as 
ever in their constant occupation of feeding. For 
animals which perform no labor, they have an egre- 
gious appetite, eating as if they were Nature's lawn- 
gardeners, and were under contract with her to keep 
the grass shaved. 

What an immense aggregate of animal power was 
running to waste before us. Those huge shoulders, 
to which the whole body seemed simply a base, were 
just the things for neck-yokes. Others, indeed, had 
thought the same before us, and tried to utilize these 
wild oxen. A gentleman at Salina, Kansas, obtained 
two buffalo calves, and trained them carefully to the 
yoke. They pulled admirably, but their very strength 
proved a temptation to them. A pasture-fence Avas 
no obstacle in the way of their sweet will. Not that 
they went over it, but they simply walked through it, 
boards being crushed as readily as a willow thicket. 
In summer they took the shortest road to w^ater, 
regardless of intervening obstructions, and they 
thought nothing of flinging themselves over a per- 
pendicular bank, wagon and all. After carefully 
calculating the result of his experiment at the end of 
the first year, the owner decided that, although he 
undoubtedly had a large amount of power on hand, he 
could obtain a similar quantity, at less expense, by 
buying a couple of steam-engines. 

A few months previous to our trip, a contractor on 
the Kansas Pacific Railroad determined to domesti- 



282 BUFFALO LAND. 

cate a young bison bull, and accordingly took it to his 
home at Cincinnati. Proving a cross customer, he 
presented it to the Longview Lunatic Asylum, near 
that city, but there was no inmate insane enough to 
occupy the yard simultaneously with Taurus for any 
length of time. The first day he charged among the 
lunatics in a reckless manner, eliciting surprising ac- 
tivity of crazy legs. If exercise for their minds was 
what the poor creatures needed, they certainly 
obtained it, by calculating when and where to dodge. 

Without loss of time, we set about finding a gate- 
way into the herds. Looking at the surface before 
us, it appeared a level, unbroken plain, quite to the 
verge where it rolled up against the distant horizon. 
One would have maintained that even a ditch, if there, 
might be traced in its meanderings across the smooth 
brown floor. Yet deep ravines, miles in length, 
wound in and out among the herds, though to us en- 
tirely invisible. A short search discovered one of 
these, which promised to answer our purpose, and to 
lead to a spot where a large number of cows and calves 
were feeding. Fortunately the wind was north, so 
that we could creep into its teeth without sending to 
the timid mothers any tell-tale taint. 

The wagons were stopped, and we got out, and de- 
scending into the hollow, moved forward. The walls 
on either side seemed disagreeably close. All around 
us was animal life, a small portion of which would 
have been sufficient, if so disposed, to make the con- 
cealed path which we were traversing a veritable 
"last ditch" to us. As we entered the ravine, some 
cayotcs slunk out of it ahead of us, and one large 



A HINT FOR MILTONIC CRITICS. 283 

gray wolf, with long gallop, disappeared over the 
banks. The tenaptation to fire at them was very 
strong, but prudence and the guide forbade. 

We picked up some very fine specimens of " infer- 
nal grape," in the form of nearly round balls of iron 
pyrites. They lay upon the surfjice like canister-shot 
upon a battle-field. It seemed as if during the early 
period, when Mother Earth began to cool off a little, 
her fiery heart still palpitated so violently under her 
thin bodice, that beads of the molten life within, like 
drops of perspiration, had forced their way through, 
and, in cooling, had retained their bubble-like form. 
We could have picked up a half-bushel of them 
which would have made very fair aliment for can- 
non. The dogs of war could have spit them out as 
spitefully and fatally against human hearts as if the 
morsels had been prepared by human hands. From 
such well-molded shot, of no mortal make, ^lilton 
might have obtained his charges for those first can- 
non which the traitor-angel invented and employed 
against the embattled hosts of heaven. Shamus, 
when he afterward became acquainted with the speci- 
mens, called them " a rattlin' shower of witches' peb- 
bles." 

We also passed large surfaces of white rock, which 
were sprinkled all over with dark, hollow balls, of a 
vitrified substance. Most of them were imbedded 
midway in the rock, leaving a hemisphere exposed 
which, in color and form, was an exact counterpart 
of a large bomb. If the reader has ever seen a 
shell partly imbedded in the substance against which 
it was fired, this description will be perfectly plain. 



284 BUFFALO LAND. 

There were indications that a volcano had once 
existed in this vicinity, and it seemed highly prob- 
able that the red-hot balls which it projected into 
air had fallen and cooled in the soft formation ad- 
jacent, still retaining their original shape. 

We should have lingered longer over these geo- 
logical curiosities, had not the premonitory symp- 
toms of a scientific lecture from the Professor 
alarmed our guide into the remonstrance, " You're 
burnin' daylight, gents ! " and thus warned, we 
pushed forward. 

A few hundred yards further brought us to the 
spot for commencing active operations. Dropping 
upon hands and knees, we began crawling along the 
side of the ravine in a line, pushing our guns before 
us. We knew that the buffalo must be very close, 
for we could hear the measured cropping of their 
teeth upon the grass. They seemed to be feeding 
toward us, as we slowly drew up to the level. I 
found myself trembling all over, so nervous that the 
cracking of a weed under our guns sounded to me as 
loud as a pistol-shot. 

I looked around, and the stories which I had read 
in my youth of adventures in oriental lands rose 
fresh to my memory. I almost imagined our party 
a dozen wild Bedouins, creeping from ambush to 
fire upon a caravan, the first note of alarm to which 
would be a storm of musketry. Unshaven faces, 
soiled clothes, and rough hair, assisted us to the per- 
sonation, and if aught else was needed to carry out 
the fancy, it soon came in a low " Hist ! " from the 
guide, as he pointed to the level above us. Follow- 



OUR TACTICS DEVELOPED. 285 

ing the direction of his finger, we saw some hairy 
lumps, about the size of muifs, not fifty yards in 
front of us, bobbing up and down just above the 
line which defined the prairie's edge against the sky. 
For an instant, we supposed them to be small 
animals of some sort, playing on the slope, but the 
low voice of the guide said, " Thar they hump, 
gents ! " and we caught the word at once, just as the 
whaler does the welcome cry of " There she blows," 
from the look-out aloft. What we saw, of course, 
were the humps of buffaloes moving slowly forward 
as they fed. At a word from our guide, we halted 
for last preparations. 

"Fire at the nearest cows, gents," he said, "and 
if you get one down, and keep hid, you '11 have lots 
of shots at the bulls gatherin' round." 

Muggs was continually getting his gun crosswise, 
so that should it go off ahead of time, as usual, it 
would shoot somebody on the left, and kick some 
one on the right. Just ahead of us, a prairie dog 
sat on his castle wall, and barked constantly. But, 
fortunately, neither his signals nor our grumbled 
remonstrances to the Briton seemed to attract the 
attention of the herd in the least degree. 

A few more feet of cautious crawling, and several 
buffaloes stood revealed, a cow and calf among the 
number. The mother espied us, and lifting her un- 
couth head, with its crooked, homely horns, regarded 
us for an instant with a quiet sort of feminine 
curiosity, and then went to feeding again. She 
probably considered us a parcel of sneaking wolves, 
and being conscious of having hosts of protectors 



286 BUFFALO LAND. 

near her, was not at all frightened. Almost simul- 
taneously, the guns of the whole party were at 
shoulder, and just as the cow lifted her head again, 
to watch the movement, we tired. The fate of that 
bison was as eifectually sealed as that of the con- 
demned army horse which was first used to tell 
Paris and the world the terrors of the mitrailleuse. 
The poor creature gave a quick whirl to the right, 
made two convulsive jumps, and then stood still. 
She dropped her nose, a gush of blood following- 
fast; her whole frame shuddered, as the air from the 
lungs tried to force its way through the clotted tide, 
and then she fell dead, almost crushing the calf 
also. The smell of the blood seemed to excite the 
bulls more than the report of the guns, which had 
only startled them for an instant. Some stood 
stupidly snuffing about the prostrate victim, while 
others, straightening out their tails, marched un- 
easily around. 

Lying on the ground, and our heads only visible, 
we kept up a constant firing. It was almost im- 
possible not to hit some of the old bulls. The 
veterans were wounded rapidly, and in all portions 
of their bodies. One old fellow, who had been 
standing with his rear to us, suddenly took it into 
his head to run for dear life, and away he went 
accordingly, with his hams looking very much like 
the end of a huge pepper-box. Two or three others 
soon began to show signs of grogginess, being drunk 
with the blood which was collecting internally from 
their many wounds. 

One bulky and distressed specimen suddenly 



RESULT OF OUR FIRST STALK. 287 

caught a glimpse of the Professor's hat. Forthwith 
the tail was straightened and raised stiffly into the 
air, the head was lowered, and down he came upon 
us at full charge. Such a proceeding, a few days 
before, would simply have resolved itself into a 
question whether he could catch us or not. IsTow, 
however, we stood our ground, or rather we lay 
upon it very firmly, while enough of us took careful 
aim to batter his bones fast and sorely. Before 
taking twenty steps, he was limping from a shat- 
tered foreleg, and in a moment more came to a 
sullen halt, and shook his old head in impotent 
rage. His eyes were fixed fiercely upon ours ; he 
evidently desired nothing in the world so much as 
to get forward for a closer acquaintance, but his 
broken bones forbade. We fired rapidly, and fairly 
loaded his body with lead before he allowed death to 
trip him from his feet. He never took his eyes 
from oif us, until the body rolled over, and I 
thanked our breech-loaders which had prevented the 
poor beast from having a fair chance. 

Three bufi'alo w^ere down, as the result of our first 
" stalk." The herd had filed, but the calf we had 
first seen remained stai^ding stupidly by his dead 
mother. ''Let's ketch the critter," said our guide, 
and to catch him we accordingly j^repared. The 
first movement was to surround him, which done, wo 
began closing in u^oon him. He was hardly larger 
than a good-sized goat, and we feared might succeed 
in dodging us, but as the circle narrowed, our hopes 
of securing a live specimen increased. Suddenly, the 
little fellow seemed aware of his danger, and, whirl- 



288 BUFFALO LAND. 

ing about, with head down, made a dart for the open 
space between Sachem and the guide. As they closed 
to prevent his escape, our fat friend went down with 
a butt in the stomach, which, although far from 
pleasant, was nevertheless the occasion of sufficient 
delay on the part of the calf to enable the guide and 
Semi-Colon to lay firm hold upon him. It was 
wonderful what a warlike little fellow he proved, 
butting undauntedly at our legs, and uttering, as he 
did so, a hissing noise. "But me no butts," ex- 
claimed the Professor, with a facetiousness which 
from him was almost as amusing to the rest of us as 
the pugnacity of the calf, as he sprang aside to avoid 
a blow on the knee, and suddenly recognized Duty's 
call in another direction. It was not long, however, 
before the little animal was securely bound, and laid 
in one of the wagons, which by this time had come 
up. 

The work of skinning and cutting up our game 
now began, the robe of the cow proving finer than 
that from either of the others. Our men told us that 
from one position old hunters sometimes shoot down 
a dozen buff^ilo before the herd takes flight. Success 
is much more probable if the first victim is a female. 

Other herds invited our attention, and by three 
o'clock in the afternoon we had twenty quarters se- 
cured, and were returning to camp. Only the first 
three robes had been taken off, the skin being left on 
the rest of the meat, the better to preserve it from 
soiling. 

Such hunting fatigues one, and we were glad 
enough to see the smoke of our fire rising from the 



SHAMUS AT A PREMIUM. 289 

valley, and to anticipate the dinner whicli we felt was 
waiting for us. The plains tired us, and so did con- 
versation, and all instinctively felt that any attempt 
at a joke, in our hungry, worn out condition, would 
have caused an all but fiendish state of feeling. Mo- 
mus himself could not have made that party smile. 
Most of us had taken part in cutting up the car- 
casses, and as we now rode home, sitting on the skin- 
covered quarters, we looked like a party of butchers 
returning from the slaughter-pens. 

As we drew close to camp, how goodly a sight did 
Shamus seem, in his white lapron, bidding us " Hurry 
to yer dinner ! " while backing up his invitation 
were the brown turkeys, the stews and roasts, the 
white bread and yellow butter, and a clean table- 
cloth. On the spot, we could have pardoned Shamus 
all his notions of witchcraft, and I think that Sa- 
chem's charity just then would even have covered 
our cook's late weakness in the line of "spooning." 
The Professor's science, Colon's philanthropy, Sa- 
chem's wealth of worldly wisdom, and Muggs' 
British self-complacency, all combined, offered no 
such consolation, in this hour of sober realities, as 
the simple Irishman, with his basting-spoon. 

Water from the brook and towels from the chest 
soon removed blood and dust, and dinner followed. 
Shamus had many a mark scored against Sachem for 
attacks on himself and his ancestry, and ventured 
during dinner to rub out one, by asking Tammany, 
in a very respectful manner, and as if it was a mat- 
ter of our cuisine^ whether calves' heads agreed with 
his stomach. 



290 BUFFALO LAND. 

What would have been called in Washington, " an 
unpleasant episode," was discovered by Muggs in the 
center of a biscuit. Taking a hearty British bite 
from it, various hairy lines followed the morsel into 
his mouth, and caught among his teeth. Examina- 
tion revealed one of Mr. Colon's choicest spiders, 
which by some means had effected his escape and 
crawled into the dough. It was hard to tell which 
was most incensed, the Briton or the entomologist. 
Sachem remarked that the specimen was much 
kneaded, and added it to our bill of fare as " game, 
breaded." 

As night approached, our Mexicans prepared for 
wolf-baiting. During the day they had shot two or 
three old bulls, which wandered within half a mile of 
camp, and now the swarthy fellows intended to turn 
an honest penny. For these purposes professional 
hunters, and occasionally teamsters on the plains, 
provide themselves with bottles of strychnine, and a 
quantity of this was accordingly produced. We went 
with the men to see the operation, as it clearly came 
within the province of our studies. With their 
knives the Mexicans cut from the carcass lumps of 
flesh about the size of one's fist, into which gashes 
were made, doses of strychnine inserted, and the flesh 
then pressed together again. The balls, thus charged, 
were scattered close around the carcass, and a few 
laid upon it. Cuts Avere also made, and the poison in- 
troduced in various parts of the hams. As many as 
fifty doses were thus prepared, and we then returned 
to camp. 

No cayote serenade occurred that night, the musi- 



A NIGHT OF QUIET. 291 

cians evidently being busy drawing sweetness from 
the cords of the slain. A solemn hush lay over the 
land, for the bisons are a quiet race, and, except in 
novels, never take to roaring any more than they do 
to ten-mile charges. 



16 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE CAYOTES' STRYCHNINE FEAST — CAPTURING A TIMBER WOLF — A FEW CORDS OP 

VICTIMS WHAT THE LAW CONSIDERS "INDIAN TAN " " FINISHING " THE NEW 

YORK MARKET A NEW YORK FARMEr's OPINION OF OUR GRAY WOLF — WEST- 
WARD AGAIN — EPISODES IN OCR JOURNEY THE WILD HUNTRESS OF THE 

PLAINS — WAS OUR GUIDE A MURDERER? THE READER JOINS US IN A BUFFALO 

CHASE THE DYING AGONIES. 

THE next day's life began, as did the previous 
one, before sunrise, and while breakfast was 
cooking, we followed the Mexicans down to examine 
their baits. The ground around the carcasses was 
flecked with forms which, in the early light, looked 
like sleeping sheep. A half-dozen or more wolves, 
which were still feeding, scampered away at our ap- 
proach. From the number of animals lying around, 
we at first supposed most of them simpl}'- gorged, but 
the rapid, satisfied jabbering of the Mexicans quickl}'' 
convinced us that the strychnine had been doing its 
work more effectually than we had given it credit for. 
Twenty-three dead wolves were found, and the even 
two dozen was made up by a large specimen of the 
gray variety — or timber-wol|/as it is called in contra- 
distinction from the cayote — who was exceedingly 
sick, and went rolling about in vain efforts to get out 
of the way^' 

Before proceeding to skin the dead wolves, the 

(292) 



OUR SHIPMENT AND ITS SEQUEL. 293 

Mexicans captured this old fellow and haltered him, 
by carbine straps, to the horns of one of the biiifiilo 
carcasses, near which he sat on his haunches, with 
eyes yellow from rage and fright. Just to stir him 
up, we tossed him a piece of bone ; he caught it be- 
tween his long fangs with a click that made our nerves 
twitch. Man never appreciates the wonderful com- 
mand that God gave him over the other animals until 
away from his fellows, and surrounded by the wild 
beasts of the solitudes, in all their native fierceness. 
Here were a few mortals of us encompassed by wolves, 
in sufficient numbers and power to annihilate our 
party, and yet one solitary man walking toward them 
would have put the whole brute multitude to flight. 

Although we wondered, at the time, that so many 
wolves were gathered from a single baiting, we soon 
learned that this success was by no means unusual. 
^,.--<At Grinnel Station, where a corporal's guard was 
stationed, we afterward saw over forty dead wolves, 
and most of them of the gray variety, stacked up, 
like cord-wood, as the result of one night's poisoning 
by the soldiers.^^ 

The remaincter of this day was devoted to stalking, 
and resulted in our obtaining a sufficiency of robes 
and meat to justify us in sending the two Mexican 
wagons back with them to Hays. Our two captives, 
the buffalo calf and wolf, went also. The history of 
that shipment merits brief chronicling. 

The robes went to St. Louis, to a man who adver- 
tised a patent way of curing such skins, " warranted 
as good as Indian tan." Some months afterward 
they were returned to Topeka, duly finished, and I 



294 BUFFALO LAXD. 

find in the official note-book the following entry : 
" Robes received to-day. Resolution, by the com- 
pany, to learn what the law would consider ' Indian 
tan,' in a suit for damages." They had been shaved 
so thin that the roots of the hair stuck out on the in- 
side, while the patent liquid in which they had been 
soaked gave forth an odor which would have been 
wonderful for its permanency, if it had not been still 
more wonderful for its offensiveness. 

Of the meat, a portion went to our friends, and the 
balance to Fulton Market, New York. In the first 
quarter, it carried dyspepsia and disgust, and was so 
tough that the recipients, with the utmost effort, 
could not find a tender regret for our danger in 
obtaining it; while our JN'ew York consignee wrote 
that the first morning's steaks "finished the market," 
and very nearly finished his customers. He found it 
impossible, even by the Fulton Market method of 
subtraction, to get three hundred dollars' worth of 
express charges out of half that amount of sales, and 
suggested a discontinuance of shipments. The buffjilo 
calf died on the cars, which probably saved some- 
body's bones from being broken in celebration of his 
maturity. The gray wolf got safely to the State of 
Xew York, but escaping soon after, a county hunt be- 
came necessary, to save the sheep from total extinc- 
tion. One farmer, in his ire, even went so far as to 
threaten us with a suit for violating the law, and im- 
porting a pauper and disreputable character into the 

State.X 

Our experience may be useful to future hunters, to 
all of w^hom we would say, unless solely to find amuse- 



THE ROOF OF THE ROCKIES. 295 

ment, never kill old bulls. Cows and calves are 
generally juicy and tender, but not so the veterans ; 
they, after death, butt around among one's digestive 
organs with a ferocity which makes the liver ache. 
Being most easily obtained, bull beef is generally all 
that is sent to market, and thus many a patriarchal 
bison, dead, accomplishes more in retaliation for his 
sudden taking-off than the Fates ever permitted him 
to do in lusty life. 

A few days more were spent in our Silver Creek 
camp, and we then folded our tents and took a west- 
ward course, with the purpose of examining, not only 
the remoter regions of Kansas, but also the Colorado 
portion of the plains. The new town of Sheridan, 
fourteen miles east of the State line, and nine from 
Fort Wallace, was our objective point. 

"Gentlemen," said the Professor, as we packed 
and adjusted our things in the wagons, " we are now 
to climb for a hundred miles directly up the roof of 
the Rocky Mountain water-shed, its long rivers and 
rich valleys forming the gutters, or spouts, to carry 
off the surplus water." 

Sachem, who dreaded these lectures almost as 
much as he did crinoline, interposed with some of his 
usual badinage ; but among irreverent classes of So- 
phomores and Freshmen, the Professor had learnt to 
answer onl}" such questions as were relevant, and to 
pass all others by unheeded. For this reason such 
interruptions never broke the thread of his discourse, 
and but temporarily checked its unwinding. In a few 
minutes, however, the Avagons started, and our expedi- 



296 BUFFALO LAND. 

tion began crawling up the slope of the Professor's 
metaphorical roof, and thereupon our worthy leader's 
discourse was brought to a graceful conclusion. 

For four days we continued our westward journey, 
the soft grass carpet beneath us ever stretching away 
to the horizon in its tiresome sameness, its figures of 
buffalo and antelope, big antlered elk and skulking 
wolves woven more beautifully upon its brown ground 
than in the rug-work of the looms. How I loved to 
sit upon these latter, when a child, and gaze at the 
strange figures, as they were lit up by the flashing 
fire-light! Memory recalled one very impracticable 
reindeer, which used to lie just in front of a maiden 
aunt's chair, representing a Brussels manufacturer's 
idea of the animal. His horns were longer than his 
head, body and tail combined, and the spring he was 
making, when transfixed by the loom, brought his 
nose so close to the ground, that my older boyhood 
calculated the immense antlers w^ould certainly have 
tipped him over had he not been held back by the 
threads. 

But to return to the plains. We examined high- 
lands and lowlands for poor soil, but found none. 
What we had once expected to see a bed of sand, if 
ever we saw it at all, turned up under the spade a rich 
dark loam, in depth and character fully equal to an 
Illinois prairie. Together with those other legends, 
localized drought and grasshoppers, the American 
desert, when revealed by the head-light of civilization, 
had taken to itself the wings of a myth, and fled 
away. There was a great sameness in the climate, 
as well as the scenery. Day followed day, with its 



A WEIRD FIGURE. 297 

sunshine and its winds, the latter being decidedly 
the most disagreeable feature of the entire trip. 

Various episodes marked our journey from Silver 
Creek to Sheridan. A few only of the more note- 
worthy incidents can be transferred to these pages. 
They will suffice, however, as specimens of our ad- 
ventures, and help the reader, I trust, to a better ac- 
quaintance with the free, wild life of the West. 

The second day after leaving Silver Creek, we 
suddenly encountered another specialty of the 
plains, the "Wild Huntress." So often has this 
personage and her male counterpart danced, with 
big letters and a bowie-knife, across yellow covers, 
that we met the " original Jacobs " of the tribe 
gleefully. She came to us in a cloud of buffalo, 
with black eyes glittering like a snake's, and coarse 
and uncombed hair that tangled itself in the wind, 
and streamed and twisted behind her like writhinir 
vipers. A black riding habit flowed out in the 
strong breeze, its train snapping like a loose sail, 
and a black mustang fled from her Indian lash — the 
dark wild horse, a fit carrier for such somber outfit. 

She was introduced to us by the bison herd, which 
came thundering across our front, with this strange 
figure pressing its flank and darting hither and 
thither from one outskirt of the flying multitude to 
the other. The reins lay loose on the neck of her 
mustang, which entered into the fierce chase like a 
bloudhound, doubling and twisting on its course 
with an agility that was wonderful. 

One hand of the huntress held out a holster re- 



298 BUFFALO LAND. 

volv^er, which she fired occasionally, but with un- 
certain aim, one of the bullets indeed whistling our 
way. The chase constituted the excitement that she 
sought, and the pistol was little more than a spur to 
urge it on. 

" That 's Ann, poor P — 's wife," said o.ur guide. 
" Crazy since the Indians killed her husband. He 
was a contractor on the railroad ; his camp used to 
be just above Hays. She lives in the old "dug-out" 
on the line yet, and spends half her time chasing 
buffalo. She never kills none, but that isn't what 
she is after. She wants to be moving, and just as 
wild as she can; it sort o' relieves her mind." 

The huntress had seen our outfit, and rode toward 
us. The face was a very plain one, with a vacant 
yet anxious expression, and the tightly-drawn skin 
seeming scarcely to cover the jaw-bones. She halted 
before us, and commenced conversation at once. 

" Good day, gentlemen." 

" Good day, madam." 

" She always tells her story to every body," mut- 
tered the guide in a low voice. 

" Have you seen any Cheyennes hereabouts, gen- 
tlemen? I sighted a party this morning, and you 
ought to have seen them run. Raven Dick, here, 
put his best foot foremost, but they shook him out of 
sight in a ravine. Have n't any thing better to do, 
friends, and so I 'm riding down some buffalo." 

We could easily understand why superstitious 
savages should run when a maniac female of such 
dismal aspect flitted along their trail. 

" Out from Hays, sirs ? " she continued, after a 



THE huntress' TALE. 299 

pause. "I left there yesterday. Dick and I camped 
last night. We must be home when the men come 
in from work this eve. Up, Rave!" and she struck 
the mustang a cruel blow, from which he jumped 
with quivering muscles, onl}'- to be violently curbed. 
For the first time she had just noticed our guide, 
and sat for an instant with her wild eyes eating a 
way to his heart. Then she turned again to us. 

" Sirs, you must aid me. Some say the Cheyenncs 
killed my husband, and others there be who think Abe 
there did it. More shame to me who has to tell it, 
but the two had a fight about a woman, some months 
gone. It was just after pay-day, and husband was 
drunk ; otherwise he 'd never have bothered his head 
about any girl but the one he married. 

" There were blows and black eyes, and being a 
rough man's quarrel, it ended with hand-shaking. 
My man came home, and we sat b}'' the fire that 
night, and I took no notice that he 'd been wrong, but 
spoke of our old home in Ohio, and asked him 
would n't he go back there when the contract was 
finished. And he put his hand on mine, and saj^s : 
'Sis, if the cuts and fills on the next mile work to 
profit, we '11 go home.' Just then there came a hiss 
from the door at our backs, and husband turned sharp 
and quick. There was a knot-hole in the planks, and 
its round black mouth, gaping from out in the night 
at us, had spit the sound into our ears. Husband 
he rose and went to the door, and fell back dying, 
with an arrow in his breast. Some said it was a 
Cheyenne, and others said Abe did it. There were 
lots of Indian bows in camp, and Cheyennes don't 



300 BUFFALO LAND. 

kill for the love of it, but only to steal. I 'm going 
to ask them, if I can catch them, did they do it, and 
if not, I know who did. I 've a bow, Abe, and an 
arrow too, and I hope his blood is n't on yom' hands." 

" I did n't do it, Ann. I do n't shoot no man in the 
dark," replied our hostler guide, with a sullen de- 
fiance, which among that class stands equally well 
for innocence or guilt. We looked at the two, as 
they sat for an instant facing each other. The pict- 
ure was a weird one — a wildcat, fronting the ob- 
ject of its chase, but undecided whether to spring 
or not. We felt that the dark maniac had been 
hovering around us, and that this meeting was not 
altogether accidental. Her disordered brain was yet 
undecided in which direction vengeance lay, and, like 
a tigress, she was watching and waiting. 

Our policy developed, on the instant, into a non-com- 
mittal and a safe one. As she wheeled her horse, and 
left us without a word, we remarked to our guide that 
crazy folks were often suspicious of their best friends. 

" That 's so," he replied, and rode off to urge on the 
wagons. We shrank from the idea of living with a 
murderer, and acquitted him of the crime on the spot. 

We are moving out over the grand, illimitable 
plain again. Reader, ride with us awhile by the side 
of that big bison bull, which we have just stirred up 
from his noonday dream. You see his broad nostrils, 
reddish just under the dark skin at the end, and 
sensitive as the nose of a pointer. They have caught 
the air which we tainted, while passing for a moment 
across the breeze. 




(ONK OF OTJH SPECLMTIxsT) 



iiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiBniiiiii 



ll!llllllllJlllilllE^AW(#iikzzto"^^^ 



iiiiiiiiiililliP 



'^;lillliliittl|lilllllllll!llllllllll|lill|: 



THE READER AND I IN CHASE. 303 

He has seen nothing, and we are still invisible, but 
he does not stop to look behind. " Escape for your 
life!" has been as plainly telegraphed from nose to 
brain, as it could be by eyes or mouth. We were so 
fjxr off and well hidden then, that those active tell- 
tales, sound and sight, could play no part in this 
alarm. But the sentinel nerves of smell fled back 
from their post on the frontier, with the cry of 
"Man ! " and the beast of the wilderness thinks only 
of flight. Powerful for defense against the rest of 
the animal creation, he is coward on the instant be- 
fore its king. 

Away he goes, right into the teeth of the wind, 
which he knows will tell him of any other foes ahead. 
Lumber along, old fellow, in your ponderous gallop, — 
the reader and I are on your path. Our saddle girths 
have been tightly drawn, the holster pistols are nestled 
snug at hand, in their cases on either side of the 
saddle-horn, while across its front lies the light Henry 
carbine, with a shoulder-strap attaching it to our per- 
son, should we drop the gun for the pistol. Thus we 
ride with twenty-four shots before reloading, at the 
service of our trigger-finger; the carbine carries 
twelve, the pistols each a half-dozen. 

How warm we have become. Our hearts are as 
high up as they can get, bumping away at the throat- 
valves, as if they wished to get out and see what it is 
that has called their reserves into action. 

There is a muskish taint in the air, from the game 
ahead. Put in your spurs, comrade ; do n't spare. 
Get up beside him quickly as possible. Once there, 
the horses wdll easily stick. A stern chase dis- 



304 BUFFALO LAXD. 

heartens the pursuer, encourages the pursued. Look 
out for that creek ! See how the butfalo takes its steep 
bank — a plunge headlong, which sends the dust up in 
clouds. iN'ow, as we check and turn into a ford, he is 
going up the opposite side. 

Another hundred yards, and we are close beside him. 
The long tongue is hung out, and his head lies low 
down, as he plunges steadily forward, diverging ever 
so little as we press up opposite his fore-shoulders. 
That was a bad shot, my friend, barely missing your 
horse's head. Shooting at full gallop is like drawing 
straight lines while being shaken. 

Some of our bullets are telling ; jou can hear them 
crack on his hide. There is a red spot now, not bigger 
than the point of one's finger, opposite a lung, and drops 
of blood trickle, with the saliva, from his jaws. Half 
a score of balls have been pelted into his big body, 
and he is bleeding internally. Now the blood comes 
thicker, and little clots of it drop down. He slows 
up — there is danger ; look well to your seat ! 

That was a narrow escape, comrade. The bull 
suddenly whirled on his forefeet for a pivot, and 
your horse's chest, which was brushing his hind-quar- 
ters, grazed the black horns as they dipped for a 
plunge. The pony's swerve barely saved you both. 

Now he stands sullen, glaring at us. The wounds 
look like little points of red paint, put deftl}^ on his 
shaggy hide. They bleed inwardly, just crimsoning 
the brown hair at their mouths. The large eyes roll 
and swell with pain and fury. He is measuring our 
distance. 

See him blow the blood from his nostrils. The 



WAS THERE EVER ANOTHER SUCH ? 305 

drops scatter like red-hot shot around him, seeming 
to hiss in globules of fury, as they spatter upon the 
dry grass. Bladder-like bubbles sputter in ebb and 
flow, from the red holes over his lungs. Tiny doors, 
for death's messengers to have entered in at. 

What a marvel of size and ferocity he looks. 
Only our horse's legs stand between us and disem- 
bowelment. Down drops the head into battery again, 
and his rush Avould knock us over like nine-pins, did 
we stay to receive it. But bison charges are short 
ones. Our animals spring away, and he stops. Signs 
of grogginess are coming on him. How he hates to 
feel his knees shake, straightening them out with a 
jerk, as we thought he was just going down. 

But at last gradually and gracefully he sinks, 
doubling his legs under him, and resting on his belly. 
There is still no flurry, or motion of any kind denoting 
pain. Unconquerable to the death, he suddenly falls 
on his side, the limbs stiffen, and he is dead. 

Twine your hands in the long beard, and in the 
mane. How he shames the lion, for whom he could 
furnish coats half a dozen times over. What switches 
of hair those black fetlocks would make. Was there 
ever another so big a bison ? 

Wondering over this, we lie down on the prostrate 
bulk, and wait for the wagon. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

" CREASING " WILD HORSES — MUGGS DISAPPOINTED — A FEAT FOR FICTION — 

HORSE AND MONKEY — HOOF WISDOM FOR TURFMEN PROSPECTIVE CLIMATIC 

CHANGES ON THE PLAINS THE QUESTION OF SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 

WANTON SLAUGHTER OF BUFFALO AMOUNT OF ROBES AND MEAT ANNUALLY 

WASTED— A STRANGE HABIT OP THE BISON NUMEROUS BILLS THE" SNEAK 

thief" OF THE PLAINS. 

WHILE we were at breakfast one morning, the 
guide ran in to say that the herd of wild horses 
which we had seen on Silver Creek, were feeding 
toward us, a mile away. I left the table to obtain 
a view of them, and by Abe's advice carried my 
rifle, as he suggested that we might "crease" one 
of them. This feat consists in hitting the upper 
edge of the bones of the neck with a bullet, the blow 
striking so high up that it will momentarily paralyze, 
without fracturing. We had read of it often in tales 
of Western daring, where the hero mounted the 
prostrate steed, and, upon its return to consciousness, 
escaped on its back from numberless difficulties and 
hosts of Indians. 

A short distance out from camp, we turned and saw 
Muofors followinsr us with a saddle and bridle on his 
arm. He had suffered grievous wrong at the heels 
of his mule, and was bent on possessing himself of 

(306) 



MY OPINION OF CREASING. 307 

one of our creased horses. After creeping, with al- 
most infinite caution, within seventy-five yards, we 
succeeded in placing our bullets exactly where we 
intended, thereby knocking down two victims, who 
at once became insensible — and no wonder, for their 
bones were as eifectually fractured as if the}'^ had 
been struck with a sledge-hammer. Muggs' faith in 
the theory of creasing, however, was unbounded. Up 
he ran and buckled on the saddle, and got one foot 
in the stirrup, ready to swing himself into the seat, 
when the animal rose. 

After waiting about ten minutes, our Briton con- 
cluded that a dead horse was poor riding, and left 
us with a very emphatic statement that, in his 
opinion, capturing a mount with a rifle was " another 
blarsted Hamerican lie, you know ! " 

I afterward conversed with several plainsmen 
about the merits of "creasing," and found that their 
attempts had invariably ended in the same way as 
ours had done. The feat may have been possible 
with smooth-bore rifles, in the hands of those remark- 
able hunters of old, who were able to shoot away the 
breath of a pigeon, and hit the eye of a flying hawk ; 
but with breech-loaders I unhesitatingly pronounce 
creasing an utter impossibility. The achievement 
sounds well in theory, but, like much else of popular 
Western lore is somewhat impracticable when fairly 
tested. I have an idea that the principal market 
value of "creased" horses in the future, as in the 
past, will be derived from furnishing creatures of ro- 
mance with fearful rides. For this purpose, a cracked 
skeleton would be as apt as a sound one, to carry the 



308 BUFFALO LAND. 

rider into many of the scenes with which these 
tales are wont to harrow our souls. 

While crawling up on the herd, we took its census 
very carefully, I was a little surprised to find there 
were but twenty-five horses, all told. They were ap- 
parently a little larger than the wild ones of Texas, 
and had bushy, manes and tails, and their step was 
remarkably firm and elastic. They were exceedingly 
timid creatures, raising their heads constantly, to 
gaze around. One very interesting circumstance con- 
nected with the herd was that among these wild 
horses we noticed two strangers ; one, a feeble old 
buffalo bull, expelled from his tribe, and seeking 
their aid against the wolves, and the other, the black 
pacing stallion. 

When we fired, the survivors were off on the in- 
stant, and the manner in which their clean hoofs 
struck the earth, and spurned it, was truly worth see- 
ing, 'No heaves either, it was plain to see, had ever 
troubled those full chests. We caught sight of the 
herd awhile after, on a ridge four miles away, and 
they were still running at full speed. These were the 
only wild horses we saw on our trip. In fact, but two 
or three small droves are believed to exist on the 
plains, as the great mass of the shaggy-maned 
thousands, children of those old Spanish castaways, 
swarm nearer the Pacific. 

So timid and fleet are these horses that none of 
them have ever been captured except during the early 
spring. They are then poor, and, by hard spurring, 
can be ridden down. At other times their bottom, 
and the advantage of having no weight to carry, in- 



THE SORROWS OF CIVILIZED HORSE-FLESH. 309 

sure their safety. It is quite probable, however, 
that a systematic pursuit, of the kind practiced in 
Texas, might prove successful at any season of the 
year. 

I gazed at our two victims with less satisfaction 
than at any thing I had ever killed. Shooting horses, 
dear reader, is a good deal like shooting monkeys. 
They are both too intimately associated with man to 
be made food for his powder. One is a very true and 
faithful servant, and the other, if we may believe Mr. 
Darwin, was once his ancestor. 

In examining the two handsome bodies lying there, 
I noticed one fact to which I should have liked to 
draw the attention of the whole learned fraternity of 
blacksmiths, who mutilate horses, the world over. 
The hoofs were as solid and as sound as ivory, with- 
out a crack or wrong growth of any sort. And why? 
Turning them up, the secret lay exposed ; for there, 
filling the cavity within — a sponge of life-giving oil — 
was the frog entire, just as Nature made and kept it. 
Its business was to feed and moisten the hoof, and 
this it had done perfectly. No blacksmith had ever 
gouged it out with his knife, and robbed it anew at 
every shoeing. 

It is noticeable that the equine race, in its wild 
state, has none of the ills of the species domesticated. 
The sorrows of horse-flesh are the fruits of civiliza- 
tion. By the study and imitation of Nature's 
methods, we could greatly increase the usefulness of 
these valuable servants, and remove temptation from 
the paths of many men who lead blameless lives, ex- 
cept in the single matter of horse-trades. It may 
17 



310 BUFFALO LAND. 

well be queried, perhaps, whether even the patient 
man of Uz, had he been laid up by a runaway colt 
instead of boils, could have resisted the temptation 
to trade it oif upon Bildad the Sliuhite, when that 
individual came to condole with him. 

As we journeyed onward, we found the soil ever 
the same, in depth and strength equal to an Illinois 
prairie. The old cretaceous ocean, and the great 
lakes, certainly left it rich in deposits. When its sur- 
face shall have been broken by the plow, and the 
water-fall absorbed instead of shed off, the plains will 
resemble, in appearance and products, any other 
prairie country. The amount of moisture annually 
passing over them, in storm-clouds that burst further 
east, is abundantly sufficient to make the tract very 
fertile. It is a well established fact in relation to 
climatic influences, that moisture attracts moisture ; 
and in this region the dry ground, with its few shallow 
streams, has now no claim upon the summer clouds. 
The tough buffalo grass has put a lock-jaw on the 
j)lain. It can drink nothing from the floods of the 
rainy season. But pry open the hungry mouth with 
the plowshare, and the earth will drink greedil}^ 
The moisture then absorbed, given up through the 
agency of capillary attraction, will draw the showers 
of summer, as they are passing over. Already a 
marked change has taken place over a portion of the 
plains, and crops have been grown as far west as 
Fort Wallace. 

The subject of spontaneous generation, I may re- 
mark in this connection, became a very interesting 
one to our party. Wherever the soil has been dis 



A STARTLING CALCULATION. 311 

tiirbed, wikl sun-flowers spring suddenly into exist- 
ence. The "grading- camps" of the railroads were 
followed by belts of these self-asserting annuals. 
The first garden-patch cultivated at Fort Wallace 
had weeds and insects similar to those that infest 
gardens elsewhere. In some cases hundreds of miles 
of barren plain intervened between the spots where 
the seeds germinated, and the nearest points where 
other plants of the same variety grew. Neither birds 
or wind could have carried the seeds in such quanti- 
ties. Is the theory true that germs fall down to us 
from other planets? Or, do not the plains offer a 
strong argument on behalf of spontaneous genera- 
tion ? 

Another matter on which the plains appealed to us 
strongly, pertained to the wanton destruction of its 
wild cattle. During the year 1871, about fifty 
thousand buffalo were killed on the plains of Kansas 
and Colorado alone. Of this number, it will be cor- 
rect to estimate that about one-third were shot for 
their robes, as many more for meat, and sixteen 
thousand or so for sport. Each buffalo could proba- 
bly have furnished five hundred pounds of meat and 
tallow, the quantity of the latter being small. When 
killed for food, only the hind quarters and a small por- 
tion of the loin are saved, in all perhaps two hundred 
pounds. The hides of these are sacrificed, the skin 
being cut with the quarters, and left on them for 
their protection. The profits of this great slaughter 
would, therefore, be about 16,500 robes and 3,300,000 
pounds of meat ; the waste over 33,000 robes, and 
probably not less than 20,000,000 pounds of meat. 



312 BUFFALO LAND. 

In this computation, the vast herds which range 
further north are hot included. There, however, the 
waste is comparatively small, as the red man is in 
the habit of saving the greater portion of the flesh 
and robes. Of the above twenty million pounds of 
meat left to rot in the sun, and taint the air of the 
plains, the greater proportion would furnish sweeter 
and more nourishing food to the poor classes of our 
cities than the beef which they are able to obtain. 

Let this slaughter continue for ten years, and the 
bison of the American continent will become extinct. 
The number of valuable robes and pounds of meat 
which would thus be lost to us and posterity, will run 
too far into the millions to be easily calculated. All 
over the plains, lying in disgusting masses of putre- 
faction along valley and hill, are strewn immense 
carcasses of wantonly slain buffalo. They line the 
Kansas Pacific Railroad for two hundred miles. 

Following ordinary sporting parties for an hour 
after they have commenced smiting the borders of 
a herd, stop by a few of the monsters that they 
leave behind, in pools of blood, upon the grass ; 
draw your hunting-knife across the fat hind-quar- 
ters, and see how the cuts reveal depths of sweet, 
nourishing meat, sufficient to supply two hundred 
starving wretches with an abundant dinner; then 
if your humanity does not tempt to a shot at the 
worse than pot-hunters in front, God's bounties have 
indeed been thrown away upon you. 

By law, as stringent in its provisions as possible, 
no man should be suffered to pull trigger on a buf- 
falo, unless he will make jDractical use of the robe 



A CRUEL PASTIME, 313 

and tlie meat. What would be thought of a hunter, 
in any of the Western States, who shot quails and 
chickens and left them where they fell? Every citi- 
zen, whether sportsman or not, would join in outcry 
against him. Another matter which the law should 
regulate relates to the protection of the buffalo cows 
until after the season when they have brought forth 
their young. The calf will thrive, though weaned 
by necessity at a very early age, and the season for 
shooting cows, although short, would be amply long 
enough to comport with the chances of future increase. 

Probably the most cruel of all bison-shooting 
pastime, is that of firing from the cars. During cer- 
tain periods in the spring and fall, when the large 
herds are crossing the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the 
trains run for a hundred miles or more among count- 
less thousands of the shaggy monarchs of the plains. 
The bison has a strange and entirely unaccountable 
instinct or habit which leads it to attempt crossing in 
front of any moving object near it. It frequently 
happened, in the time of the old stages, that the 
driver had to rein up his horses until the herd which 
he had startled had crossed the road ahead of him. 
To accomplish this feat, if the object of their fright 
was moving rapidly, the animals would often run for 
miles. 

When the iron-horse comes rushing into their soli- 
tudes, and snorting out his fierce alarms, the herds, 
though perhaps a mile away from his path, will lift 
their heads and gaze intently for a few moments 
toward the object thus approaching them with a roar 
which causes the earth to tremble, and enveloped 



314 BUFFALO LAND. 

in a white cloud that streams further and hio;her than 
the dust of the old stage-coach ever did; and then, 
having determined its course, instead of fleeing back 
to the distant valleys, away they go, charging across 
the ridge over which the iron rails lie, apparently 
determined to cross in front of the locomotive at all 
hazards. The rate per mile of passenger trains is 
slow upon the plains, and hence it often happens that 
the cars and buffiilo will be side by side for a mile or 
two, the brutes abandoning the effort to cross only 
when their foe has merged entirely ahead. During 
these races the car-windows are opened, and numer- 
ous breech-loaders fling hundreds of bullets among 
the densely crowded and flying masses. Many of the 
poor animals fall, and more go off* to die in the ra- 
vines. The train speeds on, and the scene is repeated 
every few miles until Bufi^alo Land is passed. 

Another method of wanton slaughter is the stalk- 
ing of the herds by men carrying needle-guns. These 
throw a ball double the weight of the ordinary 
carbine, and the shot is efl^ective at six hundred 
yards. Concealed in ravines, the hunter causes ter- 
rible havoc with such weapons before the herd takes 
flight. We were nevel^ g^ilt}^ of ambushing after 
those two days on the Saline, and of those occasions 
w^e were heartily ashamed ever afterward. 

One specialty of the plains deserving mention, and 
quite as remarkable as its brutes and plants, though 
of rather more modern origin, no doubt, are its 
numerous Bills. Of these, we became acquainted, 
before our trip was ended, with the folloAving distinct 
specimens : Wild Bill, Buff'alo Bill, California Bill, 



A TRIBUTE TO THE CAYOTE. 317 

Rattlesnake Bill, and Tiger Bill, the last named be- 
ing, as one of our men who had played with him re- 
marked, the "dangererest on 'em all." We also 
heard of a Camanchc Bill and an Apache Bill, but 
these celebrities it was not our fortune to meet. 

I can not dismiss the peculiar characters of the 
plains without again paying tribute to that unap- 
proachable thief, the cayote. Let no party of travel- 
ers leave any thing exposed in camp lighter than an 
anvil. We lost, in one night, at the hands — or 
rather the jaws — of these slinking sneak-thieves of 
the plains, a boot, a pair of leather breeches, and a 
half-quarter of buifalo calf, besides some smaller 
articles. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A LIVE TOWN AND ITS GRAVE-YARD — HONEST ROMBEAUX IN TROUBLE — JUDGE LYNCH 

HOLDS COURT — MARIE AND THE VINE-COVERED COTTAGE THE TERRIBLE FLOODS 

DEATH IN CAMP AND IN THE DUG-OUT WAS IT THE WATER WHICH DID IT? 

— DISCOVERY OF A HUGE FOSSIL — THE MOSASAURUS OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA 

A GLIMPSE OF THE REPTILIAN AGE — REMINISCENCES OF ALLIGATOR-SHOOTING — 
THEY SUGGEST A THEORY. 

OUR fourth day's travel from Silver Creek 
brought us to Sheridan, our secondary base of 
operations, so to speak, and only fourteen miles east 
of the Colorado border. We found the town a very 
lively one, notwithstanding that the grave-yard, 
beautifully located in a commanding position over- 
looking the principal street, was patronized to a re- 
markable extent. The place had built itself up as 
simply the temporary terminus of the Pacific Rail- 
road. Soon after our visit it moved westward, and 
at last accounts but one house remained to mark its 
former site. 

The shades of night had just settled over the town 
upon the evening of our arrival, when Abe, our 
hostler-guide, came running to us with information 
that " Honest Rombeaux," another of our hostlers, 
was being hung by some of the citizens. The local- 
ity which had been selected for this little diversion 
was a railroad trestle a short distance below the 

(318) 



IX JUDGE LYNCH's JURY-BOX. 319 

town. We were already acquainted with the pen- 
chant our Sheridanites had for hanging jieople. 
Thirty or more graves on the neighboring hill had 
been pointed out before sundown, as those of persons 
who had fallen under sentence from Judge Lynch. In 
the expressive language of the citizen who volun- 
teered the information, there had been " thirty funer- 
als, and not one nateral death." Now that Judge 
Lynch had opened court at our own door, we pro- 
posed to raise the question of jurisdiction. 

Armed, at once, we set off for a rescue, and, stum- 
bling through the darkness, had gone only a hundred 
yards or so, when we met the lynchers returning. At 
their head, with a very dirty piece of rope around his 
neck, walked our hostler, trembling all over, and 
chattering broken English rapidly, in mingled fright 
and anger. The leader of the party told us that the 
evidence not being quite sufficient for hanging, an ex- 
tra session of court had been called to be held im- 
mediately, and as having some interest in the case, 
we were invited to seats on the jury. The trial, we 
were further informed, was to be lield in Rombcaux's 
own house. This last was a new surprise, for reasons 
to be explained presently. Kombeaux had been with 
us ever since leaving Hays, and had gained his title 
of " Honest " from a particularly faithful discharge 
of duty. 

To him had been intrusted the supplies for hired 
men and horses. Three of the Mexicans he had 
severally thrashed for stealing. Once, in the night, 
on Silver Creek, we had heard a rattling at the medi- 
cine-chest, and trembling for our limited stock of 



320 BUFFALO LAXD. 

spirits, stole forth to catch the culprit. On his knees 
by the open box was Rombeaux, replacing the 
brandy-bottle, and we feared that he, too, had become 
a thief. But just then, on the still air, came words 
of thanks to the Virgin Mary, for having enabled him 
to awake in time to frighten away the robber. Nor 
was this all ; in the fierceness of his indignation, we 
beheld him sally forth immediately afterward, and 
kick a sleeping Mexican out of his blankets, on sus- 
picion. Thereupon, we went back to bed with im- 
plicit faith in Rombeaux, which had followed us ever 
since. 

Had he not told us, moreover, of a vine-covered 
cottage in France, where pretty Marie watched and 
waited until her lover could earn dowry sufficient to 
match hers ? It was the old story. A maiden fair 
tarried in Europe, while a true knight ransacked 
foreign lands for fame and fortune ; and long since 
had all of us, save Sachem, exhausted our stock of 
spare change to hasten the reunion. 

Passing some of the lowest and most flashy-look- 
ing saloons in the place, we entered a ravine, and 
soon stopped before a "dug-out." So much was it the 
work of excavation, that the dirt roof was level with 
the earth above, and the door seemed to open directly 
into the bank. We knocked, and were answered 
promptly by a fat, gayly dressed French woman. 
This was Rombeaux's wife, and here was Rom- 
beaux' s house. What a Marie and vine-clad cottage 
these ! 

Without delay the trial commenced, the French- 
man and his wife occupying places in the center, and 



THE EVIDENCE ADDUCED. 321 

the court seated on boxes, barrels, and the bed. The 
evidence taken that night in the cabin was sub- 
stantially the following : 

Two years before Jules Pigget, a native of France, 
accompanied by his young wife, appeared on the rail- 
road below, and solicited work. They both found 
ready employment, and lived below Hays, in a dug- 
out, happy and prosperous. Within a year came 
another Frenchman, our present Honest Rombcaux. 
Across the water, he and Jules had been rival suitors 
for Marie's hand ; yet strangely enough, the new- 
comer was welcomed by the young couple, and took 
up his abode with them. Matters prospered with 
all three, and soon Jules was to be appointed tank- 
tender on the road. That year came the great rain- 
storm, when so many families in Western Kansas 
and Texas were drowned. Hundreds of people were 
living in dug-outs, rude excavations in the banks of 
streams, with the roof on a level with the bank 
above, but the room itself entirely below high-water 
mark — a style of dwelling which, as no great rise had 
occurred in years, had become quite popular among 
new-comers. 

On the night of the great flood people went to bed 
as usual. The streams had risen but little. At mid- 
night the rain fell heavily ; the firm surface of the 
plains shed the waters like a roof; streams rose ten 
feet in an hour, and the foaming currents, roaring like 
cataracts, came down with the force of mighty tidal 
waves. Many dwellers in the dug-outs sprang from 
their beds into water, to find egress by the doors im- 
possible, and were fortunate if they succeeded in es- 



322 BUFFALO LAND. 

caping through the chimneys or roofs. Whole families 
were drowned. Fort Hays, at the fork of Big Creek, 
and supposed to be above high-water, was inundated, 
six or eight soldiers being swept away, while the re- 
mainder were obliged to seek safety on the roofs of 
the stone barracks. Large numbers of mules, 
picketed on the adjacent bottoms, were drowned. 
Their picket-pins fast in the earth, the animals were 
swept from their feet by the rising waters, and towed 
under by the firmly-held lariats. Emigrants en- 
camped on the bottom heard the roar of the flood ; 
with no time to harness, they seized the tongues of 
their wagons themselves, but the rising tide gained 
on them too rapidly, and they w^re glad to save life 
at the expense of oxen and goods. The horrors of 
that night are indescribable, and, to crown all, they 
took place amid a darkness that was total. Above, 
was the roar of waters descending ; below, the 
answering roar of the floods, as they rolled madly 
onward, carrying in their strong arms the wreck of 
farms, and corpses by the score. 

On that night Jules, the husband, perished. 
Honest Rombeaux and Marie, however, were rescued 
from the roof of their dwelling at daylight ; and 
afterward, when the flood had subsided, the body of 
Jules was taken from the wash in the fire-place. And 
now came suspicion, and pointed over the shoulders 
of the throng gathered around ; for there was an ugly 
wound half hidden in the dead husband's hair, and 
his fingers were l)ruised. Some men did not hesitate 
to say boldly that when Rombeaux escaped through 
the chimney, Jules stayed behind to assist his wife 



' A FIELD-DAY FOR THE PROFESSOR. 323 

out, and that when he tried to follow, he was struck 
on the head by his quondam rival, and, still clinging 
to the chimney's edge, his fingers w-ere pounded until 
their hold was loosed, and the victim sucked under 
the roof, against which the waters were alread}' beat- 
ing. The man and woman, however, claimed that it 
was the whirl of the waters against pegs and logs 
which had disfigured the corpse. Three weeks after- 
ward they were married. 

" And now, gentlemen," said our foreman, rising 
from his barrel, when the evidence was all in, "the 
question for the jury to decide is, Was it the water 
that did it?" 

A doubt existing in the case, we gave the prisoner 
its benefit; but there was murder in the air, and 
llombeaux knew it. Before morning he had de- 
parted — Marie said for La Belle France, but, as the 
citizens generally believed, really for Texas. 

The next twenty-four hours constituted a regular 
field-day for the Professor, being distinguished by 
an event which, from a scientific stand-point, was 
among the most important of our entire expedition. 
This was the discovery of a large fossil saurian, 
which we came upon while exploring quite in sight 
of Sheridan, and not more than half a mile from its 
eastern outskirts. 

Descending the side of a deep, desolate rift in the 
earth, we found ourselves among unmistakable traces 
of violent volcanic action. The ground was strewn 
with black sand, and wdth yellow pebble-like masses, 
apparently impure sulphur. There were numerous 
round cones also, looking like diminutive craters. 



324 BUFFALO LAND. 

with edges and siirfcice composed of bubble-like lava, 
the material having evidently hardened while still 
distended by the struggling gases. The appearance, 
to use a homely comparison, was somewhat that of 
several low pots, over the edges of which boiling 
molasses had poured, and then burned by the heat of 
the fire. Some scattered objects, which at first we 
took for stumps of huge trees, upon examination we 
found to be pillars of mud and rock, upheavals, ap- 
parently, from volcanic action, and not the work of 
the floods, which, in those primeval times, we knew, 
must have poured do'wn the valley. They would 
have answered, without much difficulty, for druidical 
altars, had w^e only been in the land once inhabited 
by those long-bearded, blood-thirsty priests of old. 

Two or three poisoned cayotes and a dead raven 
were lying near some bleached buffalo skulls, on 
which, as we presently discovered, daubs of lard 
mixed with strychnine had been placed, and licked 
off by the victims ; and straightway, as genius of 
the scene, an unshaven, woolen-shirted little man ap- 
peared in view, busily engaged in skinning a Avolf. 
We saluted him, and the response in French-English 
told us his nationality at once. We found his name 
to be Louis, and his proper occupation that of watch- 
maker. But as the pinchbeck time-pieces of the 
frontier did not furnish enough repairing to take up 
his entire time, he had many spare hours, and these 
he devoted to securing pelts. As buffalo were not 
now in the vicinity, he larded their bones, with the 
success of which we were eye-witnesses. 

Louis was a wiry little Gaul, very ]3ositive in his 



AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. 325 

ideas about every thing. An animated conversation 
sprang up at once between him and the Professor, 
and it soon became amusingly evident that his geo- 
logical ideas did not entirely accord with those of the 
Philosopher. A sudden turn in the colloqu}^ de- 
veloped a fact of keen interest to even the most un- 
scientific member of our party. 

Pointing to the other side of the valley, Louis told 
us that there lay the bones of an immense snake, all 
turned to stone. This sudden voice from the past 
aires sounded in the Professor's ears like the blare of 
a trumpet to a warrior. He hurried us forward in the 
direction indicated, and, locking arms with the bloody- 
shirted little Frenchman, strode on in advance. I 
wish his class could have seen him thus traversing 
the desolate bed where that old sunken volcano went 
to sleep. We were glad that the latter was still 
asleep, and had never acquired the habit of snorting 
into wakefulness, and pelting explorers with hot 
rocks. 

What mj^steries, I have often thought, might we 
not discover, on looking down the throat of a healthy 
volcano, if some wise alchemist could only brew a 
dose sufficiently powerful to stop the fiery , fellow's 
foaming at the mouth ! Or, better still, if it could 
reach the bowels of the earth, and keep the whole 
system quiet, while we, puny mortals, like trichina 
mites, swarmed down the interior, and bored scien- 
tifically back to the crust again. Earth's veins run 
golden blood, and we might be gorged with that, per- 
haps, ere making exit into the sunshine again. 

A shout from the further edge of the ravine cut 



326 BUFFALO LAND. 

short our speculations, and called our attention to the 
Professor. He stood waving his slouched hat for an 
instant, and then bent close over the ground, in 
earnest scrutiny. 

A few moments later, and we all stood beside the 
huge fossil. It lay exposed, upon a bed of slate, look- 
ing very much like a seventy-foot serpent, carved in 
stone. Part of the remains had been taken up to the 
town, and spread over the bench, in the shop of 
Louis. From what was left, the jaws appeared to 
have been originally over six feet long, the sharp 
hooked and cone-shaped teeth being still very per- 
fect. A few broad fragments of ribs showed that, in 
circumference, the animal's body had been about the 
size of a puncheon. We felt confident that the s^ieci- 
men was a very rare one, as Muggs had never seen 
any -thing like it, even in England. It now rests in 
the museum at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

"This fossil, gentlemen," said the Professor, "is 
that of a Mosasaurus, a huge reptile which existed in 
the cretaceous sea. This appears to be one of the 
largest members of the family yet discovered, its 
length, as you will perceive, being over fifty feet. 
The species to which it belonged swarmed in im- 
mense numbers, but were surrounded by monsters 
even more remarkable than they. The deep which 
they inhabited must have been constantly lashed and 
torn with their fierce conflicts; for it was an age of 
war, and the powers of oifense and defense, which the 
monsters of that period possessed, were terrible. 
Winged reptiles filled the air, in appearance more 
hideous than any creation of the imagination. Follow- 



REMINISCENCES OF ALLIGATOR HUNTING. 327 

ing close upon the Reptilian came the Mammalian 
age, and I hold that with the largest of the mammals 
came man, rude in tastes and uncouth in form, but 
even then ruling as king of the animal creation. 
Wielded by a strength equal to that of a gorilla, his 
club would dash in the skull of any beast which dare 
dispute dominion with him." 

The text thus suggested him, the Professor then 
diverged into an argument on his pet theory of man's 
early existence. 

A trivial circumstance connected with our dis- 
covery arrested my attention, and, from a sports- 
man's stand-point, suggested a little theory of m}^ 
own. The head of the saurian rested on the basin's 
edge, its jaws touching, with their stony tips, the 
jirairie, while down into the valley below stretched 
the body and tail. This little fact dove-tailed itself 
into some incidents of the past, and gave rise to quite 
a train of speculation. 

Some years ago I hunted alligators in Mississippi, 
sitting on the bank of a sluggish bayou, and watching 
the surface of the water, close under which were visi- 
ble the noses of countless buffalo fish, floating as one 
sees minnows do in glass jars. Under the hot sun all 
nature seemed asleep. Soon, however, a black knot, 
an ugly dark wart, not larger than one's two fists, 
would make its appearance, floating, like some 
charred fragment, slowly along. 

To a stranger, the only suspicious circumstance 

would have been, that where there was no current 

whatever, it still continued its motion, the same as 

before. The experienced eye recognized this object 
18 



328 BUFFALO LAND. 

as the nose of an alligator, behind which, and just at 
the surface, as it got opposite, the ugly eyes would be- 
come visible, looking out for hogs or dogs, as they 
came to drink under the bank. 

I nev^er had the patience to wait for the finale of 
the scene ; but had I done so, I should have beheld 
the knot float closer in, and, just after passing the 
victim, a tail would have come out of the water, and, 
with a curving blow forward, knocked the prize out 
from shore, and in front ofthe devourer's jaws. It was 
my good fortune, frequently, to send a Ballard rifle-ball 
into the pirate's eyes. In such cases there was usu- 
ally a tremendous commotion in the water, accom- 
panied by a strong smell of musk, and the wounded 
reptile would then make straight for shore, and run 
his head upon it. Under such circumstances, the 
creature always sought at least that much of dry 
land to die upon, seeming as anxious as man that 
its lamp of life should not be extinguished under 
water. 

This monster whose remains we were now ex- 
huming was allied to the alligator, as one of the 
great family of lizards, and had died in the same 
manner — his head on the shores of the basin, his tail 
in its depths. Perhaps in the convulsion of JSTature 
which opened a path for the waters to the ocean, and 
drained this inland sea, the fissure in which we stood 
had gaped, and exhaled poisonous gases through the 
whirlpool its suction created. The saurian monster 
of that strange age felt the hungry vortex swallowing 
him, which meanwhile enveloped him in deadly 
secretions, killing before devouring. With a last 



BONES CLOTHED IN STONE. 



329 



lurch through the cauldron's ebbing tide, the lizard 
threw himself upon its edge, and died. 

Of the countless millions of saurians then existing, 
capricious Xature had seized upon this one, to trans- 
mute into the imperishable monument of that extinct 
race. In those ages of roaring waters and hissing- 
fires, she had clothed the bones in stone, that they 
might withstand the gnawing tooth of time, and thus 
handed them down to the wondering eyes of the 
Nineteenth Century. Many of the pieces, it should 
be said, were cracked and scarred, evidently by the 
action of fierce heat. 

Constantly the earth is giving up these marvelous 
creations of the past, in comparison with which the 
animals of the present are tame enough. While Ave 
doubt a modern sea-serpent as impossible, we dig up 
fossilized marine monsters, which could easily have 
swallowed the biggest snake that credible sea-captain 
ever ran foul of. 




CHAPTER XXIII. 

FHOM SHERIDAN TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS — THE COLORADO PORTION OF THE PLAINS 

THE GIANT PINES — ATTEMPT TO PHOTOGRAPH A BUFFALO THINGS GET MIXED 

— THE LEVIATHAN AT HOME — A CHAT WITH PROFESSOR COPE — TWENTY-SIX 
INCH OYSTERS REPTILES AND FISHES OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA. 

AT Sheridan, we were very near the Colorado 
portion of the plain, which stretched on for 
some hundreds of miles further westward, its further 
line lapping the base of the Rocky Mountains. Into 
this territory we passed, and spent a considerable 
period of time in its examination, but while our ex- 
perience was to us full of interest, any thing more 
extended than a brief summary would occuj)y too 
much space here. 

For the first one hundred miles, the soil deterio- 
rated in quality, and the sage-bush made its appear- 
ance, as did also the "Adam's needle" or "Spanish 
bayonet." The latter makes an excellent substitute 
for soup, but a wretched cushion to alight upon when 
thrown from your horse. (I make the latter state- 
ment on the authority of Doctor Pythagoras.) Brack- 
ish water was found at intervals, and white saline 
crystallizations were seen along some of the streams. 
Although the soil was more sandy than further east, 
the buifalo grass was abundant and nutritious, so 

(330) 



pike's peak in the distance. 331 

that at no time had we any difficulty in finding 
grazing for our cattle, and the antelope that we killed 
were invariably in good condition. This belt of east- 
ern Colorado proved particularly rich in fossil 
wealth, to the descri2)tion of which we shall devote 
most of this chapter, and the whole of that following. 
In the vicinity of the Big Sandy, we found numerous 
lakes of clear water, surrounded by rich pasturage. 

About one hundred miles west of the Kansas line, 
the country began gradually improving, and continued 
to do so until we reached the mountains. The Bijou ba- 
sin, through which we passed, afforded excellent range, 
and contained good streams. The country swarmed 
with antelopes, and once we saw a herd running rap- 
idly, which was four minutes in crossing the road. 

We had fine views of Pike's Peak, at a distance of 
one hundred and fifty miles, the atmosphere there 
being remarkably pure and transparent. Emigrants 
have often been deceived when, as their wagons 
crawled over the crest which we named First View, 
the fine old Peak burst upon their sight, and in their 
enthusiasm resolved to get an early start next day 
and reach it before another night-fall. Our guide told 
us that when he "first crossed the plains, by the Platte 
route, his party camped for the night near Monument 
Rock. After supper, two of the men and a woman 
set out to cut their names in the stone, supposing it 
to be only a mile or so distant, but when an hour's 
traveling brought the rock apparently no nearer, they 
became discouraged and returned. T^ext day Mon- 
ument Rock was found to be twelve miles distant 
from their camping-place. 



332 BUFFALO LAND. 

When within a day's journey of the mountains, we 
came in sight of several tall objects standing out in 
bold relief upon the plain. These proved to be giant 
pines, thrown out, like sentinels, from the forests still 
far beyond and invisible. We could not resist the 
impulse to give the first one we came to a hearty hug ; 
for, after so many weeks upon the treeless plain, these 
suggestions of mighty forests, with their mingled 
sheen and shadow, were indeed welcome. The mount- 
ains of Colorado, with their beautiful parks and won- 
derful young cities, have been so often described that 
our notes would prove a useless addition to a some- 
what worn history, and hence we forbear taxing the 
reader's patience by transcribing them here. 

After studying the principles of mining and irriga- 
tion, we spent in the neighborhood of one calendar 
month in getting views of sunrise and sunset, from 
all the known peaks, to the end that no future tourist 
might feel called upon to extend to us his kind com- 
miseration for having lost some particular outlook, 
where he had been, and which he considered the 
best of all. To accomplish this thoroughly, we hewed 
j^aths up hitherto inaccessible mountains, and at the 
end of the month made a close calculation, and de- 
cided that we were a match for all such tourists for 
at least five years to come. We then retraced our 
steps to Buffalo Land, again entering the fossil belt 
near Fort Wallace. 

One incident of our trip into Colorado deserves 
especial mention from having been the first, as it will 
probably prove the last, attempt to photograph the 
buffalo in his native wildness, at close quarters. The 



IMPERILLED ENTOMOLOGISTS. 333 

idea was suggested in a letter which the Professor 
received from his Eastern friends, who thought that 
actual photographs of the animals inhabiting the 
plains would be a valuable addition to the ordinary 
facilities for the study of natural history. As good 
fortune would have it, there happened to be at Sheri- 
dan an artist, just arrived from Hays, then prospecting 
for a location, and him we promptly engaged. The sec- 
ond day out, two old buffaloes, near our road, were 
selected as good subjects for first views. One of these 
was soon killed, the other making his escape up a ra- 
vine near by. Although we had good reason to sus- 
pect that the latter had been wounded, we did not 
pursue him, since it was now near noon, and our art- 
ist, moreover, being of a somewhat timid disposition, 
had expressly stipulated that we should keep near 
him, not so much, he repeatedly assured us, as a body- 
guard for himself, as for the protection of his new 
camera and outfit. 

The dead bull wo propped into position with our 
guns and other supports, and while the artist care- 
fully adjusted his instrument, Shamus began to make 
preparations for lunch, and Mr. Colon and Semi set 
out for a few minutes' pastime in -catching bugs. 
They had been gone a full half hour, and we were 
just remarking their prolonged absence somewhat 
impatiently, when a loud cry from the nearer bank 
of the ravine fell on our ears, and looking around we 
beheld Colon senior, and ditto junior, making to- 
ward us at a tremendous rate of speed. 

"Buffalo! " was all that we could catch of Semi's wild 
shouts, as he led the chase directly toward us, his 



334 BUFFALO LAND. 

.father having lost several seconds in securing one 
of his specimen-cases, and on the instant the old 
bull that we had wounded an hour before hove in 
sight, in full charge upon the flying entomologists. 
As buflfiilo charges are short ones, he would have 
stopped, no doubt, in a moment or so, had not Muggs 
and I, the only members of our party who happened 
to have their guns at hand, opened fire on him, and 
planted another bullet between his ribs. The effect 
was to infuriate the old fellow tenfold, and down he 
came careering toward us, with what I then thought 
the most vicious expression of countenance I had 
ever seen on a buffalo's physiognomy. 

The attack was so sudden, and the surprise so com- 
plete, that we were most ingloriously stampeded, and 
fell back in hot haste upon our reserves, the guide 
and teamsters, who, we knew, would be provided with 
weapons and in good shape to cover our retreat. The 
sitting for which we had made such elaborate prepa- 
rations was abruptly terminated in the manner shown 
in the accompanying engraving. 

Fortunately for the artist, the blow originally in- 
tended for him was delivered upon the legs of the 
instrument. His assailant being at length dispatched, 
the poor fellow proceeded to pick out of the ruins of 
his property what remained that might again be use- 
ful. He stated that his stock, as well as the subject 
of buffalo photographing, was " rather mixed," and 
that, if we would pay him for the damage done, he 
would return. Next morning he left us, and thus it 
was that science lost the projected series of valuable 
photographic views. 



THE LEVIATHAX AND HIS PROTOTYPES. 337 

Exploration gives us a past history of the plains 
which is interesting in the extreme. Our party spent 
some weeks in exploring for fossils beyond Sheridan, 
and were richly rewarded. In the great ocean which 
once covered the land, the wonderful reptiles of the 
cretaceous age swarmed in prodigious numbers, and 
their fierce struggles upon and under its surface made 
" the deep to boil like a pot," The mysterious Le- 
viathan, described in the forty-first chapter of Job, had 
its prototype in more than one of the monsters of 
that period : 

"Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth 
are terrible round about. 

" Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks 
of fire leap out. 

" Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seeth- 
ing pot or caldron. 

" His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out 
of his mouth. 

" The flakes of his flesh are joined together : they 
are firm in themselves ; they can not be moved. 

" He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten 
wood. 

" He maketh a path to shine after him ; one would 
think the deep to be hoary." 

The fossil remains of these reptiles are nuiperous, 
constituting a rich mine of scientific wealth, which 
has been but very lightly worked. Enough fossils 
can be obtained by future exploration to fill to over- 
flowing all the museums of the land. 

\Ve have no means of computing how long the 
cretaceous sea existed, but we know that it passed 



338 BUFFALO LAND. 

away and was replaced by large fresh-water lakes, 
those of the plains being bounded on the west by the 
Rocky Mountains. Then succeeded an age of which 
we can catch but occasional glimpses, and our long- 
ing becomes intense that we could know more. We 
see a land fertile as the garden of Eden, surrounding 
beautiful lakes. The climate is delightful, and earth, 
air, and water, are full of life. Grand forests and 
flower-covered prairies nod and blossom under the 
kind caresses of Nature. Water fowls numberless 
plunge under and skim over the surface, and the 
songsters of the air warble forth their hymns of 
praise. Over the pastures and through the forests 
roam an animal multitude of which we can have but 
faint conception, but among the number we recog- 
nize the lion with his royal mane, and the tiger with 
his spots ; and there also are the elephant, the mas- 
todon, the rhinoceros, the wild horse, and the great 
elk. 

After our return, the eminent naturalist. Prof. 
Edward D. Cope, A. M., visited the plains, and spent 
some time in careful exploration there. As he had pre- 
viously received several fossils from us for examina- 
tion, I communicated with him not long since, asking 
a record of his trip. This he very kindly consented 
to furnish, and, did space permit, I would gladly pub- 
lish entire the matter which he has placed at my 
disposal. No apology can be necessary, howeA^er, for 
yielding to the temptation of devoting two or three 
chapters to a chat by Prof. Cope with my readers. 

The manuscript, as it lies before me, is entitled: 
" On the Geology and Vertebrate Palaeontology of 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE. 339 

the Cretaceous Strata of Kansas." Let us begin 
with " Part I — A General Sketch of the Ancient 
Life." 

That vast level tract of our territory lying between 
Missouri and the Rocky Mountains represents a con- 
dition of the earth's surface which has preceded, in 
most instances, the mountainous or hilly type so prev- 
alent elsewhere, and may be called, in so far, incom- 
pletely dev^eloped. It does not present the variety 
of conditions, either of surface for the support of a 
very varied life, or of opportunities for access to its 
interior treasures, so beneficial to a high civilization. 

It is, in fact, the old bed of seas and lakes, which 
has been so gradually elevated as to have suffered 
little disturbance. Consistently with its level surface, 
its soils have not been carried away by rain and 
flood, but rather cover it with a deep and wide- 
spread mantle. This is the great source of its wealth 
in Nature's creations of vegetable and animal life, 
and from it will be drawn the wealth of its future in- 
habitants. On this account its products have a 
character of uniformity; but viewed from the stand- 
point of the political philosopher, so long as peace 
and steam bind the natural sections of our country 
together, so long will the plains be an important ele- 
ment in a varied economv of continental extent. 

But they are not entirely uninterrupted. The nat- 
ural drainage has worn channels, and the streams 
flow below the general level. The ancient sea and 
lake deposits have neither been pressed into very 
hard rock beneath piles of later sediment, nor have 



340 BUFFALO LAJ^D. 

they been roasted and crystallized by internal heat. 
Although limestone rock, they easily yield to the ac- 
tion of water, and so the side drainage into the 
creeks and rivers has removed their high banks to 
from many rods to many miles from their original 
positions. In many cases these^ banks or bluffs have 
retained their original steepness, and have increased 
in elevation as the breaking-down of the rock en- 
croached on higher land. In other cases the rain- 
channels have cut in without removing the interven- 
ing rocks at once, and formed deep gorges or canyons, 
which sometimes extend to great distances. They 
frequently communicate in every direction, forming 
curious labyrinths, and when the intervening masses 
are cut away at various levels, or left standing like 
monuments, we have the characteristic peculiarities 
of " bad lands " or mauvaises terres. 

In portions of Kansas tracts of this kind are 
scattered over the country along the margins of the 
river and creek valleys and ravines. The upper 
stratum of the rock is a yellow chalk; the lower, 
bluish, and the brilliancy of the color increases the 
picturesque effect. From elevated points the j^lains 
appear to be dotted with ruined villages and towns, 
whose avenues are lined with painted walls of forti- 
fications, churches, and towers, while side alleys pass 
beneath natural bridges or expand into small pockets 
and caverns, smoothed by the action of the wind, 
carrying hard mineral particles. 

But this is the least interesting of the peculiarities 
presented by these rocks. On the level surfaces, de- 
nuded of soil, lie huge oyster-shells, some opened and 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 341 

others with both valves together, like remnants of a 
half-finished meal of some titanic race, who had been 
frightened from the board, never to return. These 
shells are not thickened like most of those of past 
l^eriods, but contained an animal which would have 
served as a meal for a large party of men. One of 
them measured twenty-six inches across. 

If the exjilorer searches the bottoms of the rain- 
washes and ravines, he will doubtless come upon the 
fragment of a tooth or jaw, and will generally find 
a line of such pieces leading to an elevated position 
on the bank or bluff, where lies the skeleton of some 
monster of the ancient sea. He may find the verte- 
bral column running far into the limestone that locks 
him in his last prison ; or a paddle extended on the 
slope, as though entreating aid ; or a pair of jaws 
lined with horrid teeth which grin despair on ene- 
mies they are helpless to resist. Or he may find a 
conic mound, on whose apex glisten in the sun the 
bleached bones of one Avhose last office has been to 
preserve from destruction the friendly soil on which 
he reposed. Sometimes a pile of huge remains will 
be discovered, which the dissolution of the rock has 
deposited on the lower level, the force of rain and 
wash having been insufficent to carry them away. 

But the reader inquires. What the nature of these 
creatures thus left stranded a thousand miles from 
either ocean? How came they in the limestones of 
Kansas, and were they denizens of land or sea? It 
may be replied that our knowledge of this chapter of 
ancient history is only about five years old, and has 
been brought to light by geologiccil explorations set 



342 BUFFALO LAND. 

on foot by Dr. Turner, Prof. Mudge, Prof Marsh, W. 
E. Webb, and the writer. Careful examinations of 
the remains discovered show that they are all to be 
referred to the reptiles and fishes. We find that they 
lived in the period called Cretaceous, at the time 
when the chalk of England and the green sand marl 
of New Jersey were being deposited, and when many 
other huge reptiles and fishes peopled both sea and 
land in those quarters of the globe. The twenty-six 
species of reptiles found in Kansas, up to the present 
time, varied from .ten to eighty feet in length, and 
represented six orders, the same that occur in the 
other regions mentioned. Two only of the number 
were terrestrial in their habits, and three were flyers ; 
the remainder were inhabitants of the salt ocean. 
When they swam over what are now the plains, the 
coast-line extended from Arkansas to near Fort 
Riley, on the Kansas River, and, passing a little east- 
ward, traversed Minnesota to the British Possessions, 
near the head of Lake Superior. The extent of sea 
to the westward was vast, and geology has not yet 
laid down its boundary ; it was probably a shore now 
submerged beneath the waters of the North Pacific 
Ocean. 

Far out on its expanse might have been seen in 
those ancient days, a huge snake-like form which rose 
above the surface and stood erect, with tapering 
throat and arrow-shaped head ; or swayed about, 
describing a circle of twenty feet radius above the 
water. Then it would dive into the depths, and naught 
would be visible but the foam caused by the disap- 
pearing mass of life. Should several have appeared 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 343 

together, we can easily imagine tall twining forms, 
rising to the height of the masts of a fishing fleet, or 
like snakes twisting and knotting themselves to- 
gether. This extraordinary neck, for such it was, 
rose from a body of elephantine proportions ; and a 
tail of the serpent pattern balanced it behind. The 
limbs were probably two pairs of paddles, like those 
of Plesiosaurus, from which this diver chiefly dif- 
fered in the arrangement of the bones of the breast. 
In the best known species, twenty-two feet represent 
the neck, in a total length of fifty feet. 

This is the Elasmosaurus platyiirus (Cope), a car- 
nivorous sea reptile, no doubt adapted for deeper 
waters than many of the others. Like the snake- 
bird of Florida, it probably often swam many feet 
below the surface, raising the head to the distant air 
for a breath, then withdrawing it and exploring the 
depths forty feet below, without altering the position 
of its body. From the localities in which the bones 
have been found in Kansas, it must have wandered 
far from land, and that many kinds of fishes formed 
its food, is shown by the teeth and scales found in the 
23osition of its stomach. 

A second species, of somewhat similar character 
and habits, differed very much in some points of 
structure. The neck was drawn out to a wonderful 
degree of attenuation, while the tail was relatively 
very stout, more so, indeed, than in the Elasmosaurus, 
as though to balance the anterior regions while occu- 
pied in various actions, e. g., while capturing its food. 
This was a powerful swimmer, its paddles measuring 
four feet in length, with an expanse, therefore, of about 



344 BUFFALO LAND. 

eleven feet. It is known as Pohjcotylus latipinnis 
(Cope). 

The two species just described formed a small 
representation, in our great interior sea, of an order 
which swarmed at the same time, or near it, over the 
gulfs and bays of old Europe. There they abounded 
twenty to one. Perhaps one reason for this was the 
almost entire absence of the real rulers of the waters 
of Ancient America, viz : the Pythonoinor^hs. These 
sea-serpents, for such they were, embrace more than 
half the species found in the limestone rocks in Kan- 
sas, and abound in those of New Jersey and Alabama. 
Only four have been seen as yet in Europe. 

Researches into their structure have shown that 
they were of wonderful elongation of form, especially 
of tail ; that their heads were large, fiat, and conic, 
with eyes directed partly upwards ; that they were 
furnished with two pairs of paddles like the flippers 
of a whale, but with short or no portion representing 
the arm. With these flippers and the eel-like strokes 
of their flattened tail they swam — some with less, 
others with greater speed. They were furnished, like 
snakes, with four rows of formidable teeth on the 
roof of the mouth. Though these were not designed 
for mastication, and without paws for grasping could 
have been little used for cutting, as weapons for 
seizing their prey they were very formidable. And 
here we have to consider a peculiarity of these creat- 
ures in which they are unique among animals. 
Swallowing their prey entire, like snakes, they were 
without that wonderful expansibility of throat, due 
in the latter to an arrangement of levers supporting 



A CHAT WITH TROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 345 

the lower jaw. Instead of this each half of that jaw 
was articulated or jointed at a point nearly midway 
between the ear and the chin. This was of the ball 
and socket type, and enabled the jaw to make an 
angle outward, and so widen, by much, the space 
inclosed between it an its fellow. The arrangement 
may be easily imitated by directing the arms for- 
ward, with the elbows turned outward and the 
hands placed near together. The ends of these bones 
M'ere in the Pythonomorphs as independent as in the 
serpents, being only bound by flexible ligaments. 
By turning the elbows outward, and bending them, 
the space between the arms becomes diamond-shaped, 
and represents exactly the expansion seen in these 
reptiles, to permit the passage of a large fish or other 
body. The arms, too, will represent the size of jaws 
attained by some of the smaller species. The out- 
ward movement of the basal half of the jaw necessa- 
rily twists in the same direction the column-like bone 
to which it is suspended. The peculiar shape of the 
joint by which the last bone is attached to the skull, 
depends on the degree of twist to be permitted, and, 
therefore, to the degree of expansion of which the 
jaws were capable. As this differs much in the dif- 
ferent species, they are readily distinguished by 
the column or "quadrate" bone when found. 
There are some curious consequences of this struct- 
ure, and they are here explained as an instance 
of the mode of reconstruction of extinct animals 
from slight materials. The habit of swallowing large 
bodies between the branches of the under-jaw ne- 
cessitates the prolongation forward of the mouth 
19 



346 BUFFALO LAND. 

of the gullet ; hence the throat in the Python- 
omorphs must have been loose and almost as baggy 
as a pelican's. Next, the same habit must have 
compelled the forward position of the glottis or 
opening of the windpipe, which is always in front 
of the gullet. Hence these creatures must have ut- 
tered no other sound than a hiss, as do animals of 
the present day which have a similar structure, as 
for instance, the snakes. Thirdly, the tongue must 
have been long and forked and for this reason: its 
position was still anterior to the glottis, so that there 
was no space for it except it were inclosed in a 
sheath beneath the windpipe when at rest, or thrown 
out beyond the jaws when in motion. Such is the 
arrangement in the nearest living forms, and it is 
always, in these cases, cylindric and forked. 

The flying saurians of the cretaceous sea of Kan- 
sas, though not numerous in species, were of remark- 
able size. Though their remains are generally 
flattened by the pressure of the overlying rocks, 
two species have left a complete record of their form 
and dimensions. One of them (Oniifhochirus Tarinjia) 
spread eighteen feet between the tips of the wings, 
while the 0. umbrosus covered nearly twenty-five feet 
with his expanse. These strange creatures flapped 
their leathery wings over the waves, and, often 
plunging, drew many a fish from its companions of the 
shoal; or, soaring at a safe distance, viewed the sports 
and combats of the more powerful saurians of the sea ; 
or, trooping to the shore at nightfall, suspended 
themselves to the cliffs by the claw-bearing fingers 
of their wing-limbs. 



THE PRIMEVAL MAx's PASTORAL. 347 

In connection with the subject of the old lakes and 
their fertile shores, where human beings, it might 
reasonably be expected, once lived so comfortably, 
the editor of this volume begs to lay before the 
reader (in a sort of parenthesis, for which Professor 
Cope is in no way responsible) an effort of Sachem's, 
He dedicated it to Darwin, and was pleased to call 
it, notwithstanding it smells more of the fossil-bone 
caves than the fields, 

THE PRIMEVAL MAN's PASTORAL. 

My grandfather Jock was an apo, 

His grandfather Twist was a worm ; 
Each age has developed in shape, 

And ours has got rid of tlie squirm ; 
If the law of selection will work in our case, 

AVe '11 develop, in time, to a wonderful race. 

My sweetheart has claws, and her face 

Is covered with bristles and hair; 
She 's feline in nature and grace, 

She 's apt to get out on a tear, 
She 's cursed with a passion to sing after night ; 

But these she '11 evolve, and develop all right. 

One race has evolved in the sea, 

And partly got rid of their scales ; 
Though cousin by faces to me, 

They 're cousin to fishes by tails ; 
But they '11 ever remain simply mer-men and women, 

For selection won't work, in the world that they swim in. 



348 BUFFALO LAND. 

'T is said that Gorilla the Great, 

Who rules as the chief of our clan, 
Has found in the annals of fate, 

We 're soon to evolve into man ; 
Furthermore, that our children will doubt whence they 
came, 

Till a fellow named Darwin shall put them to shame. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CONTINUED BY COPE — THE (ilANTS OF THE SEAS — TAKING OCT FOSSILS IN A GALE — 
INTERESTING DISCOVERIES — THE GEOLOGY OF THE PLAINS. 

THE giants of the Pythonomorphs of Kansas 
have been called Liodon proriger (Co^^e) and 
Liodon dyspehr (Cope). The first must have been 
abundant, and its length could not have been far 
from sixty feet, certainly not less. Its physiognomy 
was rendered peculiar by a long projecting muzzle, 
reminding one of that of the blunt-nosed sturgeon of 
our coast, but the resemblance was destroyed by the 
correspondingly massive end of the branches of the 
lower jaw. Though clumsy in appearance, such an 
arrangement must have been etfective as a ram, and 
dangerous to his enemies in case of collision. The 
writer once found the wreck of an individual of this 
species strewn around a sunny knoll beside a bluif, 
and his conic snout, pointing to the heavens, formed 
a fitting monument, as at once his favorite weapon, 
and the mark distinguishing all his race. 

Very different was the Liodon dyspeJor, a still 
larger animal than the last, with a formidable arma- 
ture. It was indeed the longest of known reptiles, 
and probably equal to the great tinner whale of 
modern oceans. The circumstances attending the 

(351) 



352 BUFFALO LAXD. 

discovery of one of these, will always be a pleasant 
recollection to the writer. A part of the face, with 
teeth, was observed projecting from the side of a 
bluif by a companion in exploration, ( Lieut. Jas. H. 
Whitten, U. S. A.), and we at once proceeded to fol- 
low up the indication with knives and picks. Soon 
the lower jaws were uncovered, with their glistening 
teeth, and then the vertebrae and ribs. Our delight 
was at its height when the bones of the pelvis and 
part of the hind limb ^yere laid bare, for they had 
never been seen before in the species and scarcely in 
the order. While lying on the bottom of the cre- 
taceous sea, the carcass had been dragged hither and 
thither by the sharks and other rapacious animals, 
and the parts of the skeleton were displaced and 
o-athered into a small area. The massive tail 

o 

stretched away into the bluff, and after much labo- 
rious excavation we left a portion of it to more per- 
severing explorers. The species of Clidastes did not 
reach such a size as some of the Liodo7is, and were 
of elegant and flexible build. To prevent their habits 
of coiling from dislocating the vertebral column, these 
had an additional pair of articulations at each end, 
while their muscular strength is attested by the ele- 
gant stride and other sculptures which appear on all 
their bones. Three species of this genus occur in the 
Kansas strata, the largest (Clidastes cineriarum, 
Cope) reaching forty feet in length. The discovery 
of a related species {Holcodus coryj)lioeus^ Cope) was 
made by the writer under circumstances of difficulty 
peculiar to the plains. After examining the bluffs 
for half a day without result, a few bone fragments 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 353 

were found in a wash above their base. Others 
led the way to a ledge forty or fifty feet from both 
summit and foot, where, stretched along in the yel- 
low chalk, lay the projecting portions of the whole 
monster. A considerable number of vertebra) were 
found preserved by the protective embrace of the 
roots of a small bush, and, when they were secured, 
the pick and knife were brought into requisition to 
remove the remainder. About this time one of the 
gales, so common in that region, sprang up, and, 
striking the bluff fairly, reflected itself upwards. So 
soon as the j^ick pulverized the rock, the limestone 
dust was carried into eyes, nose, and every avaihible 
opening in the clothing. I was speedily blinded, and 
my aid disappeared into the canyon, and was seen no 
more while the work lasted. Only the enthusiasm 
of the student could have endured the discomfort, 
but to him it appeared a most unnecessary " con- 
version of force " that a geologist should be driven 
from the field by his own dust. A handkerchief tied 
over the face, and pierced by minute holes opposite 
the eyes, kept me from total blindness, though dirt 
in abundance penetrated the mask. But a fine relic 
of creative genius was extricated from its ancient 
bed, and one that leads its genus in size and explains 
its structure. 

On another occasion, riding along a spur of a yel- 
low chalk bluff, some vertebrae lying at its foot met 
my eye. An examination showed that the series en- 
tered the rock, and, on passing round to the opposite 
side the jaws and muzzle were seen projecting from 
it, as though laid bare for the convenience of the ge- 



354 BUFFALO LAND. 

ologist. The spur was small and of soft material, and 
we speedily removed it in blocks, to the level of the 
reptile, and took out the remains, as they laid across 
the base from side to side. A genus related to the 
last is Edestosaurus. A species of thirty feet in 
length, and of elegant proportions has been called E. 
tortor (Cope.) Its slenderness of body was remark- 
able, and the large head was long and lance-shaped. 
Its flippers tapered elegantly, and the whole animal 
was more of a serpent than any other of its tribe. Its 
lithe movements brought many a fish to its knife- 
shaped teeth, which are more efficient and numerous 
■ than in any of its relatives. It was found coiled up 
beneath a ledge of rock, with its skull lying undis- 
turbed in the center. A species distinguished for its 
small size and elegance is Clidastes ])umilus (Marsh). 
This little fellow was only twelve feet in length, and 
was probably unable to avoid occasionally furnishing 
a meal for some of the rapacious fishes which 
abounded in the same ocean. 

Tortoises were the boatmen of the cretaceous 
waters of the eastern coast, but none had been 
known from the deposits of Kansas until very re- 
cently. One species now on record {FrotosUga gigas, 
Cope), is of large size, and strange enough to excite 
the attention of naturalists. It is well known that 
the house or boat of the tortoise or turtle is formed 
by the expansion of the usual bones of the skeleton 
till the}'' meet and unite, and thus become continu- 
ous. Thus the lower shell is formed of united ribs 
of the breast and breast-bone, with bone deposited 
in the skin. In the same way the roof is formed 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 355 

by the union of the ribs with bone deposited in the 
skin. In the very young tortoise the ribs are sepa- 
rate as in other animals ; as they grow older they 
begin to expand at the upper side of the upper end, 
and, with increased age, the expansion extends 
throughout the length. The ribs first come in con- 
tact where the process commences, and in the land- 
tortoise they are united to the end. In the sea-turtle, 
the union ceases a little above the ends. The 
fragments of the Protosfega were seen by one of the 
men projecting from a ledge of a low bluff. Their 
thinness and the distance to which they were traced 
excited my curiosity, and I straightway attacked the 
bank with the pick. After several square feet of rock 
had been removed, we cleared up one floor, and 
found ourselves well repaid. ]Many long slender 
pieces, of two inches in width, lay upon the ledge. 
They were evidently ribs, with the usual heads, but 
behind each head was a plate like the flattened bowl 
of a huge spoon placed crosswise. Beneath these 
stretched two broad plates two feet in width, and 
no thicker than binders' board. The edges were 
fingered, and the surface hard and smooth. All this 
was quite new among fully grown animals, and we at 
once determined that more ground must be explored, 
for further light. After picking away the bank and 
carving the soft rock, new masses of strange bones 
were disclosed. Some bones of a large paddle were 
recognized, and a leg bone. The shoulder-blade of a 
huge tortoise came next, and further examination 
showed that we had stumbled on the burial-place of one 
of the largest species of sea-turtle yet known. The sin- 



356 BUFFALO LAND. 

gle bones of the paddle were eight inches long, giving 
the spread of the expanded flippers as considerably 
over twenty feet. But the ribs were those of an 
ordinary turtle just born, and the great plates repre- 
sented the bony deposit in the skin, which, com- 
mencing independently in modern turtles, united 
with the expanded ribs below, at an early day. But 
it was incredible that the largest of known turtles 
should be but just hatched, and for this and other 
reasons it has been concluded that this " ancient mari- 
ner " is one of those forms not uncommon in old days, 
whose incompleteness in some respects points to the 
truth of the belief, that animals have assumed their 
modern perfection, by a process of growth from more 
simple beginnings. 

The cretaceous ocean of the West was no less re- 
markable for its fishes than for its reptiles. Sharks 
do not seem to have been so common as in the old 
Atlantic, but it swarmed with large predaceous forms 
related to the salmon and saury. 

Yertebrse and other fragments of these species pro- 
ject from the worn limestone in many places. I will 
call attention to, perhaps, the most formidable, as 
well as the most abundant of these. It is the one 
whose bones most frequently crowned knobs of shale, 
which had been left standing amid surrounding de- 
struction. The density and hardness of the bones 
shed the rain otf on either side, so that the radiating 
gutters and ravines finally isolated the rock mass 
from that surrounding. The head was some inches 
longer than that of a fully grown grizzly bear, and 
the jaws were deeper in proportion to their length. 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — COXTINUED. 359 

The muzzle was shorter and deeper than that of a 
bull-dog. The teeth were all sharp cylindric fangs, 
smooth and glistening, and of irregular size. At 
certain distances in each jaw they projected three 
inches above the gum, and were sunk one inch into 
the bony support, being thus as long as the fangs 
of a tiger, but more slender. Two such fangs crossed 
each other on each side of the middle of the front. 
This fish is known as Portheus molossus (Cope). Be- 
sides the smaller fishes, the reptiles no doubt sup- 
plied the demands of his appetite. 

The ocean in which flourished this abundant and 
vigorous life, was at last completely inclosed on the 
west, by elevation of sea-bottom, so that it only com- 
municated with the Atlantic and Pacific at the Gulf 
of Mexico and the Arctic Sea. The continued eleva- 
tion of both eastern and western shores contracted 
its area, and when ridges of the sea-bottom reached 
the surface, forming long low bars, parts of the 
water area were inclosed and connection with salt 
water prevented. Thus were the living beings im- 
prisoned and subjected to many new risks to life. 
The stronger could more readily capture the weaker, 
while the fishes would gradually perish through the 
constant freshening of the water. With the death 
of any considerable class the balance of food supply 
would be lost, and many larger species would disap- 
pear from the scene. The most omnivorous and en- 
during would longest resist the approach of starva- 
tion, but would finally yield to inexorable fate; the 
last one caught by the rising bottom among shallow 



360 BUFFALO LAND. 

pools from which his exhausted energies could not 
extricate him. 

PART TI — GEOLOGY. 

The geology of this region has been very partially 
explored, but appears to be quite simple. The fol- 
lowing description of the section along the line of the 
Kansas Pacific Railroad, will probably apply to sim- 
ilar sections north and south of it. The formations 
referable to the cretacious period on this line, are 
those called by Messrs. Meek and Hayden the Da- 
kota, Benton, and Niobrara groups, as Nos. 1, 2 and 
3. According to Leconte,* at Salina, one hundred 
and eighty-five miles west of the State line of Mis- 
souri, the rocks of the Dakota group constitute the 
bluffs, and continue to do so as far as Fort Harker, 
thirty-three miles farther west. They are a " coarse 
brown sand-stone, containing irregular concretions 
of oxide of iron," and numerous molluscs of marine 
origin. Near Fort Harker, certain strata contain 
large quantities of the remains (leaves chiefly) of 
dicotyledonous and other forms of land vegetation. 
Near this point, according to the same authority, 
the sand-stone beds are covered with clay and lime- 
stone. These he does not identify, but portions of it 
from Bunker Hill, thirty-four miles west, have been 
identified by Dr. Hayden, as belonging to the Ben- 
ton or second group. The specimen consisted of a 
block of dark, bluish-gray clay rock, which bore the 

* Notes on the geology of the survey for the extension of the 
Union Pacific Road E. D. from the Smoky Hill to the Rio Grande, 
by John L. Leconte, M. D. Philadelphia, 1868. 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 361 

remains of the fish Ajjsojjelix sauriformis (Cope). 
That the eastern boundary of this bed is very sinu- 
ous is rendered probable by its occurrence at Brook- 
ville, eighteen miles to the eastward of Fort Ilarkcr, 
on the railroad. In sinking a well at this point, the 
same soft, bluish clay rock was traversed, and at a 
depth of about thirty feet a skeleton of a saurian of 
the crocodilian order was encountered, the Ilyjjosaurus 
vehhii (Cope). 

The boundary line, or first ajipearance of the beds 
of the Niobrara division, has not been pointed out, 
but at Fort Hays, seventy miles west of Fort Ilarkcr, 
its rocks form the blufl^s and outcrops every-where. 
From Fort Hays to Fort Wallace, near the western 
boundary of the state, one hundred and thirty-four 
miles beyond, the strata present a tolerably uniform 
appearance. They consist of two portions ; a lower, 
of dark-bluish calcareo-argillaceous character, often 
thin-bedded ; and a superior, of yellow and whitish 
chalk, much more heavily bedded. Near Fort Hays 
the best section may be seen, at a point eighteen miles 
north, on the Saline river. Here the bluffs rise to a 
height of two hundred feet, the yellow strata consti- 
tuting the upper half. No fossils were observed in 
the blue bed, but some moderate-sized Ostrew, fre- 
quently broken, were not rare in the yellow. Half 
way between this point and the Fort, my friend, X. 
Daniels, of Hays, guided me to a denuded tract, cov- 
ered with the remains of huge oysters, some of which 
measured twenty-seven inches in diameter. They 
exhibited concentric obtuse ridges on the interior 
side, and a large basin-shaped area behind the hinge. 



362 BUFFALO LAND. 

Fragments of fish vertebrae of Anogmius type were 
also found here by Dr. Janeway. These were ex- 
posed in the yellow bed. Several miles east of the 
post, Dr. J. H. Janeway, Post Surgeon, pointed out to 
me an immense accumulation of Inoccramus lyroUem- 
aticus in the blue stratum. This species also oc- 
curred in abundance in the bluffs west of the Fort, 
which were composed of the blue bed, capped by a 
thinner layer of the yellow. Large globular or com- 
pound globular argillaceous concretions, coated with 
gypsum, were abundant at this point. 

Along the Smoky Hill River, thirty miles east of 
Fort Wallace, the south bank descends gradually, 
while the north bank is bluffy. This, with other in- 
dications, points to a gentle dip of the strata to the 
north-west. The j^ellow bed is thin or wanting on 
the north bank of the Smoky, and is not observable 
on the north fork of that river for twenty miles 
northward or to beyond Sheridan Station, on the 
Kansas Pacific Railroad. Two isolated hills, " The 
Twin Buttes," at the latter point are composed of 
the blue bed, here very shaly to their summits. 
This is the general character of the rock along and 
north of the railroad between this point and Fort 
Wallace. 

South of the river the yellow strata are more dis- 
tinctly developed. Butte Creek Valley, fifteen to 
eighteen miles to the south, is margined by bluffs of 
from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet in height 
on its southern side, while the northern rises gradu- 
ally into the prairie. These bluffs are of yellow 
chalk, except from ten to forty feet of blue rock at 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 363 

the base, although many of the canyons are exca- 
vated in the yellow rock exclusively. The blutfs of 
the upper portion of Butte Creek, Fox, and Fossil 
Spring (five miles south) canyons, are of yellow 
chalk, and report of several persons stated that those 
of Beaver Creek, eight miles south of Fossil Spring, 
are exclusively of this material. Those near the 
mouth of Beaver Creek, on the Smoky, are of con- 
siderable height, and appear at a distance to be of 
the same yellow chalk. 

I found these two strata to be about equally fossil- 
liferous, and I am unable to establish any palieonto- 
logical difference between them. They pass into each 
other by gradations in some places, and occasionally 
present slight laminar alternations at their line of 
junction. I have specimens of CimoUchthijs semian- 
ceps (Cope), from both the blue and yellow beds, and 
vertebrae of the Liodon glandiferus (Cope) were found 
in both. The large fossil of Liodon dysjjelor (Cope) 
was found at the junction of the bed, and the caudal 
portion was excavated from the blue stratum ex- 
clusively. Portions of it were brought East in blocks 
of this material, and these have become yellow and 
yellowish on many of the exposed surfaces. The 
matrix adherent to all the bones has become yellow. 
A second incomplete specimen, undistinguishable 
from this species, was taken from the yellow bed. 

As to mineral contents, the yellow stratum is re- 
markably uniform in its character. The blue shale, 
on the contrary, frequently contains numerous con- 
cretions, and great abundance of thin layers of 
gypsum and crystals of the same. Xear Sheridan 



364 BUFFALO LAND, 

concretions and septaria are abundant. In some 
places the latter are of great size and, being em- 
bedded in the stratum, have suffered denudation of 
their contents, and, the septa standing out, form a 
huge honey-comb. This region and the neighbor- 
hood of Eagle Tail, Colorado, are noted for the 
beauty of their gypsum-crystals, the first abundantly 
found in the cretaceous formation. These are hex- 
agonal-radiate, each division being a pinnate or 
feather-shaped lamina of twin rows of crystals. The 
clearness of the mineral, and the regular leaf and 
feather forms of the crystals give them much beauty. 
The bones of vertebrate fossils preserved in this bed 
are often much injured by the gypsum formation 
which covers their surface and often jDenetrates them 
in every direction. 

The yellow bed of the Niobrara group disappears 
to the south-west, west, and north-west of Fort Wal- 
lace, beneath a sandy conglomerate of uncertain age. 
Its color is light, sometimes white, and the component 
pebbles are small and mostly of white quartz. The 
rock wears irregularly into holes and fissures, and 
the soil covering it generally thin and poor. It is 
readily detached in large masses, which roll down 
the bluffs. No traces of life were observed in it, but 
it is probably the eastern margin of the southern ex- 
tension of the White River Miocene Tertiary stratum. 
This is at least indicated by Dr. Hayden, in his geo- 
logical preface to Leidy's extinct mammals of Da- 
kota and Nebraska. 

Commercially, the beds of the Niobrara formation 
possess little value, except when burned for manure. 



A CHAT WITH PROF. COPE — CONTINUED. 365 

The yellow chalk is too soft in many places for build- 
ings of large size, but will answer well for those of 
moderate size. It is rather harder at Fort Hays, as 
I had occasion to observe at their quarry. That 
quarried at Fort Wallace does not appear to harden 
by exposure ; the walls of the hospital, noted by Le- 
conte on his visit, remained in 1871 as soft as they 
were in 1867. A few worthless beds of bituminous 
shale were observed in Eastern Colorado. 

The only traces of Glacial Action in the line ex- 
plored were seen near Topeka. South of the town 
are several large, erratic masses of pink and bloody 
quartz, whose surfaces are so polished as to appear 
as though vitrified. They were transported, perhaps, 
from the Azoic area near Lake Superior. 



20 



CHAPTER XXV. 

A SAVAGE OUTBREAK THE BATTLE OF THE FORTY SCOUTS THE SURPRISE — PACK- 
MULES STAMPEDED DEATH ON THE ARIOKEREE — THE MEDICINE MAN A DIS- 
MAL NIGHT — MESSENGERS SENT TO WALLACE — MORNING ATTACK WHOSE 

FUNERAL ? — RELIEF AT LAST THE OLD SCOUTS' DEVOTION TO THE BLUE. 

ON our return to Sheridan we were deeply pained 
to hear of the sad death of Doctor Moore and 
Lieutenant Beecher, whose acquaintance we had 
formed at Fort Hays, and the former of whom we 
had learned to esteem most highly as a personal 
friend. A scouting party, not long before, had left 
the post just named, under the command of General 
Forsythe, of Sheridan's staff, and composed princi- 
pally of those citizens who had seen frontier service. 
Dr. Moore accompanied it as surgeon, and Lieut. 
Beecher — a nephew of Henry Ward Beecher, and 
an officer of the regular army — held the position of 
chief of scouts, which he had filled for some time 
previously with much credit. The savages of the 
plains being again upon the war-path, that brave 
and well-organized little party of fifty were dis- 
patched to pursue a band of Indians, which had ap- 
peared before Sheridan and run ofi' a lot of stock. 
Some of the scouts were noAV in the town, and from 

(366) 



PROFESSION FOLKS OX A SCOUT. 367 

one of them we obtained an account of the expedi- 
tion. Fresh from the mouth of that sandy hell in 
the river's head, which had sucked out the life-blood 
of so many of his companions, I wish my readers 
could have heard the story told with the rude elo- 
quence in which he clothed it. As it is, how nearly 
they will come to doing so, must perforce depend on 
how nearly I can remember his language. 

"You see, captain," he began (it is considered im- 
polite among this class ever to address one without 
using some title), " we had the nicest little forty lot 
o' scouts that ever followed the plains fur a living, 
and trails fur an Injun. Thar wur ingineers, doctors, 
counter-jumpers, and a few deadbeats, but every one 
of 'em had lots of tight, and not the least bit of scare. 
Ther talents run ter tightin', an' ther bodies never 
run away from it. 

" It wur kinder curious, though, to see the chaps 
that wur not bred ter ther business git along. They 
wur the profession folks. Some had a little compass, 
not much bigger 'n a button, that they carried on the 
sly. Good scouts do n't need no such fixin's. These 
uns 'ud reach inter ther pockets, as if they was going 
ter take a chaw o' terbaccer, and gettin' a sly wink 
at ther needle, would cry out ter ther neighbors, 'I 
say, hoss, we 're goin' a little too much east of 
north ! ' or, ' I tell yer what, fel, w^e 're at least two 
p'ints oif our course.' And all ther time they 
could n't have told south from west, without them 
needles. But ther war n't a coward in the whole 
pack. Every one had a back as stiff fur a fight as a cat. 

"We struck a large Injun trail the fourth day out. 



368 BUFFALO LAND. 

and kept it till evenin', but no other sign showed it- 
self over ther wide reach that would have told a liv- 
in' bein' had ever bin thar before us. Next mornin', 
early, ther was a sudden fuss among our horses, and 
a cry from the guard, and, afore we knew it, eight 
pack-mules had been stampeded, and driven off. It 
wur a narrow call fur ther whole herd. 

" The fellers had come down a ravine until they 
got close enough, and, then suddenly rushin' along in 
the grayness, set the mules inter a crazy run, and 
gathered 'em up, out of gun-shot. You may lick a 
pack-mule along all day, and be afraid he '11 drop 
down dead, and yet give him a fair chance to stam- 
pede, and he '11 outrun an elk, and grow fat on it. 

" Stock and Injuns was both out of sight in a jiffy, 
and the order was given to saddle, and recapture. 
We were just raisin' inter ther stirrups, when some 
of the boys called out, and we saw the whole valley 
ahead of us filled with Injuns comin' down. Ther 
war n't no mules lost just then, and we kinder fell 
back onto a sort of high-water island in the Arick- 
eree. That, yer know, is the dry fork of the Repub- 
lican. Bein' low water then, as it is most of the time 
thar, nothin' but a dry bed of sand was on each side. 

" It seemed as if the whole Injun nation was com- 
ing down on us. Such a crowd o' lank ponies, and 
painted heathen astride, yer never see. I expected 
seein' of 'em would prevent my ever seein' of my 
family agin. 'Jim,' says I to my chum, and 'Bill,' 
says he to me, and then we did n't say nothin' more, 
but as the heathen come a chargin', we both put a 
hand in our pockets, just as if the brains had been in 



THE FIKST day's FIGHT. 369 

one head, and then both of us took a chaw o' ter- 
baccer. 

" For the next few hours ther w^ur an awful scrim- 
mage, and a shootin', and a hollerin', and a whizzin' 
of bullets, which made that the hottest little island 
ever stranded on sand. The bo^^s had all dug out, 
with their hands, sort o' little rifle-pits, and fit behind 
'em. We had good Spencers, with a few Henrys, 
and the way those patents spit lead at the devils' 
hearts wur a caution. The first charge, they cum 
close up to us, and for a hull minnit, that stretched 
out aw^fully, we were afraid they 'd ride us down. It 
was reg'lar coffee-mill work then, grindin' away at 
the levers, and we flung bullets among 'em astonish- 
in'. As fast as one Injun keeled, another 'd pick him 
up, and nary dead was left on the field. 

" They follered up the charge game by a siege 
one, and peppered away at us from the neighborin' 
ravines and hills. Ther number wur about eight 
hundred, and some had carbines, and others old 
rifles and pistols. A few would sneak along in the 
bottom grass, and get behind trees, and then thur 
would be a flash, and a crack, and the ball would 
come tearin' in among us, sometimes burrowin' in a 
human skull, or elsewise knockin' down a horse. 
And all around, on the ridges, the squaws were a 
dancin' and shoutin', and the braves, whenever any 
of 'em got tired of shootin', would join their ugly 
she's, and help 'em in kickin' up a hullabaloo. 

" I reckon, arter they 'd killed the last boss, they 
must ha' had a separate scalp-dance fur each one on 
us. Plain sailin' then, ther red fellows thought — less 



370 BUFFALO LAND. 

than fifty white men down in the sand, and most a 
thousan' Injuns roun' 'em, and more'n a hundred 
miles to the nearest fort ; the weaker party bein' 
afoot, too, and the other mounted. 

" But we soon made 'em pitch another tune, beside 
ther juberlatin' one. We had took notice of a big- 
Injun, with lots o' fixins on him, cavortin' all round 
ther island, and a spurrin' up the braves. We made 
certain it wur the medicine man, and found out arter- 
ward that he 'd been tellin' on 'em ther pale-faces' 
bullets would melt before reachin' an Injun. Six on 
us got our rifles together, and as ther old copper- 
colored Pillgarlic cum dancin' round, we let fly. 
If Injun carcasses go along with ther spirits, I 
reckon ther bullets we put into the old sinner, got 
melted, sure enough. And what a howlin' thur was, 
as his pony scampered in among the squaws, empty 
saddled I 

" It wur an awful sight to look roun' among our 
little sand-works — twenty killed and wounded men, 
covered with blood and grit. Our leader. Col. For- 
sythe, was shot in both legs, a ball passin' through 
the thigh part of one, and a second breakin' the bones 
of the other below the knee. He wur a knowin' and 
cool officer. 

" Lieut. Beecher, a nephew of the big preacher, 
was shot through the small o' the back, and lay thar 
beggin' us to kill him. He too wur a brave man, and 
did n't flinch, never, from duty nor danger. They 
say that his two sisters were drowned from a sail- 
boat on the Hudson, two years ago, and that the old 
parents are left now all alone. Doc. Moore was shot 



" THAT NIGHT WAS AWFUL DISMAL." 371 

through the head, and sat thar noddin', and not 
knowin' no one. I spoke to him once, and he kinder 
started back, as if he see the Injun which shot him, 
still thar. He wur a good surgeon, and all the boys 
liked him. I hev got his gun down at my tent, all 
full o' sand, whar it got tramped arter he fell. * 

" Culver lay dead on one side of our little island, 
shot by an Injun that crawled up in the grass. Lots 
o' others was wounded, and our chances looked as 
dark as ther night which wur coming down on us. 
But we was glad ter see daylight burn out, as it kin- 
der gin us a chance to rest and think. 

" That night was awful dismal. The little spot o' 
sand, down thar in the river's bed, seemed ther only 
piece o' earth friendly to us, and we were clingin' to 
it like sailors ter a raft at sea. The darkness all 
around was a gapin' ter swaller us, and a hidin' its 
blood-hounds, to set 'em on with ther sun. Night, 
without any thin' in it more 'n grave-stones, is terri- 
fyin' to most people, but just you fill it full of pan- 
tin's for blood in front, and Death sittin' behind, 
among the corpses, and watchin' the wounded, and a 
feller's blood falls right down to January. It kinder 
thickens, like water freezin' round the edges, and 
your hands and feet get powerful cold, and you feel 
as if you would n't ever be thawed out, this side of 
the very place you don't want ter go to. 

" Toward midnight, Stillwell and Trudell crawled 
out o' camp, to go for relief. They were to creep 
and sneak through the Injun lines, and get beyond 

* I obtained the weapon that I had loaned our friend, and have 
carefully kept it since, as a memento. 



372 BUFFALO LAND. 

'em by daylight. Then they would lay by, and push 
on ag'in, when dark cum, toward Wallace. That lit- 
tle spot of barracks, a hundred and twenty-five miles 
oif, kept up our hope mightily. It was our light- 
house, like. We were shipwrecked among savages, 
and had sent a couple of yawls off, to tell the keeper 
thar of danger. We knew if the news reached, 
blue coats would flash out to us, like spots of light, 
and our foes go before 'em as mist. 

"But footin' it nights, and lay in' by days, fur over 
a hundred miles, through Injun countr}^, is slow 
work, and we did n't, most on us, expect much ; and 
our hearts follered the little black spots, showin' us 
our two companions a creepin' off into darkness, like 
a couple of wolves. It took good men, too, from our 
little part}^, and fur awhile I was faint-hearted. In 
our shipwreck, it seemed like takin' bottles which 
might ha' helped to hold out, and flingin' 'em into 
ther waves, with messages tellin' how and whar we 
went down. 

" About two o'clock Lieut. Beecher died, havin' for 
some time begged the men to end his sufferin's by 
shootin' of him. 

" We all kept perfect quiet that night — no fire, nor 
wur ther a sound heard, from our little island, by the 
heathen on the bluffs. An just that quietness gave 
'em the worst foolin' they ever had. It seems the 
road down river had been left open by 'em, hopin' 
we would steal out and run for it durin' the night. 
We bein' all on foot, they could overtake us in the 
mornin', and worry on us out easy. Durin' the dark 
we waited quiet, and watched, and passed water to 



A GENERAL ABSENTING OF INDIANS. 373 

our wounded, and sprinkled it over some of 'em who 
could n't drink. 

"It wer just kinder palin' like way up in the sky, 
and we could see that off down East, somewhar, ther 
mornin' was commencin' ter climb, when Jim 
nudged me, and says, ' Chum, what 's that ? ' We 
both stuck our ears right up, like two jackass-rab- 
bits, and listened. It wur all dark near the ground, 
but we could hear a steady, gallopin' sound, comin' 
in toward us from up the ravines, and over the hills. 
It wur like a beatin' of ther earth with flails by 
threshers you could n't see. 

" The sound came a creepin' along the sod so quick 
we soon knew it wur the Injuns, on ther ponies, 
comin' down ter pick up the trail. And now we could 
see 'em a bobbin' along toward us in ther gloom, the 
rows er ugly heads goin' up and down, like jumpin'- 
jacks. It just seemed as ther side er ther night 
had been painted all full o' gapin' red devils, and 
ther sun wur jest revealin' on 'em. 'Lay still ! ' wer 
the word, and each man hugged his sand bank, just 
a skinnin' one eye, like a lizard over a log. They 'd 
no idee we were thar, not bein' able to understand 
the grit of that little forty, and they cum gallopin' 
along, careless-like, happy as so many ghosts goin' 
ter a fun'ral. But it war n't our fun'ral just then. 
When they 'd got so close we could smell 'em, colonel 
guv the word ter fire, and we let 'em have it. 
Stranger, you ain't no idee what a gettin' up bluffs, 
and general absentin' of 'emselves ther wur. Arter 
the fust crack, yer could n't see an Injun at all, but 
jest a lot er ponies, diggin' it on ther back track, and 



374 ' BUFFALO LAND. 

you knowed j)ainted cusses wer glued ter ther oppo- 
site side on 'em. 

"W.e had fightin' until night ag'in, but no men 
were killed arter the fust day. The savages were 
cautious-like, and took long range fur it. We now 
commenced cuttin' off the hind quarters of our dead 
bosses, and boilin' small pieces in a empty pickle-jar 
belongin' ter ther colonel. Burke, he 'd dug a shal- 
low well, too, which gave us plenty of water. Hoss 
meat is n't relishin' at fust. One kin eat it, but, as 
ther feller said about crow, he don't hanker arter it. 
Ther gases had got all through ther carcasses, and 
we had ter sprinkle lots o' gunpowder inter the pot, 
to kill the taste. 

" The fust hoss cut up was my old sorrel. He 
did n't go well while livin', and could n't be expected 
to when dead. Instead of takin' a straight course, and 
givin' some satisfaction, he jumped across all the 
turns inside o' me, and brought up bump agin my 
hide, as if he wer comin' through. He had that 
same trick o' cuttin' corners when livin', and I per- 
ceded ter give him up as a uncontrollable piece of 
hoss flesh. 

"When night come on agin, Pliley and Whitney 
attempted ter get through ther Injun lines and make 
fur Wallace, but were driven back. Fur ther next 
few days we kept eatin' hoss flesh, and fightin' oc- 
casionally. The third night Pliley and Donovan suc- 
ceeded in gettin' away. 

" On the fourth day. Doctor Moore died. After the 
fifth, no Injuns was visible, and we gathered prickly 
pears and eat 'em, boilin' some down inter syrup. 



RELIEF AT LAST. 375 

Our mouths wore all full of ther little needles, and it 
war mighty hard keepin' a stiff uj^per lip. We were 
eatin' away on our forty-eight horses, and watchin' 
and hopin'. We could n't move, and leave our 
wounded, or the Injuns would be on 'em right off. 
The poor fellows had no surgeon, and were sufferin' 
terrible, as 't was. 

" Ther mornin' of ther ninth day broke with a cry 
of 'Injuns!' ]N'ow, human natur' can't stand fitin' 
allers. To carry out my shipwreck idee, fellers on a 
raft kin cling an' swaller water fur awhile, but they 
can't fiolit a hull crist o' hurricanes. Hoss meat an' 
prickly pears ain't jest ther thing, either, to slap grit 
inter a man. Ther were a big crowd comin', sure 
enough, way off on ther hills. We were kinder be- 
ginnin' ter despond, when a fEimiliar sort o' motion 
on the fur dark line spelt in air the word, ' Friend ! ' 
It wer the advanced guard o' relief, approachin' on 
ther jump. Why, boy" — and the old scout seized 
hold of Semi, and shook him in excitement — " talk 
of Lucknow and ther camels a comin', they war n't 
nowhar. The blessed old blue cloth ! If yer want 
ter love a color, jest get saved by it once. When I 
get holed in ther earth, I '11 take back ter dust on a 
blue blanket, an' if I get married afore, gal an' I '11 
wear blue, an' the preacher '11 hev ter swar a blue 
streak in jinin' us ! " 

We afterward met others of the scouts — intelli- 
gent, clear-headed fellows, with much more of culti- 
vation than our rough friend possessed — and they 
corroborated his story in every particular. I have 
let him tell it in his own way, not only because 



376 BUFFALO LAND. 

vastly more graphic tlian any words of mine could 
be, but also to the end that the reader might become 
acquainted with a genuine frontiersman — one of that 
class which is wheeling into line with the immense 
multitudes of Indians and buffalo that time and civil- 
ization are bearing swiftly onward to hide among the 
memories of the past. 

That the savages suffered very severely in their 
several attacks upon that little band of heroes on the 
Arickeree, was evident from the number of bodies 
found by the relief, as it hastened forward from Fort 
Wallace. The corpses were resting on hastily-con- 
structed scaffolds, and some had evidently been 
placed there while dying, as the ground underneath 
was yet wet with blood. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE STAGE DRIVERS OF THE PLAINS — OLD BOB ''JAMAICA AND GIKGER " — AN OLD AC- 
QUAINTANCE — BEADS OF THE PAST ROBBING THE DEAD A LEAP FROM THE 

LOST HISTORY OF THE MOUND BUILDERS — INDIAN TRADITIONS — SPECULATIONS — 
ADOBE HOUSES IN A RAIN — CHEAP LIVING— WATCH TOWERS. 

THE stage drivers of the plains are rapidly be- 
coming another inheritance of the j^ast, pushed 
out of existence by the locomotive, whose cow-catcher 
is continually tossing them from their high seats into 
the arms of History. What a rare set they are, 
though ! 'No two that I ever saw were nearly alike, 
and they respmble not one distinctive class, but a 
number. The Jehus who crack their whips over the 
buffalo grass region, and turn their leaders artisti- 
cally around sharp corners in rude towns, are 
made up on a variety of patterns. Some are loqua- 
cious and others silent, and while a portion are given 
to profanity, another though smaller number are 
men of very proper grammar. Some with whom I 
have ridden would discount truth for the mere love 
of the exercise, while others I have found so partic- 
ular that they could not be induced to lie, except 
when it was for their interest to do so. 

In a village on the shores of Lake Champlain, in 
the frozen regions of northern New York, where mer- 

(377) 



378 BUFFALO LAND. 

cury becomes solid in November, and remains so 
until May, I got on intimate terms, when a boy, 
with a stage driver. During the long winters the 
coaches were placed on sleds, and well do I remem- 
ber the style in which " Old Bob," as he was uni- 
versally called, would come dashing into the town 
on fi'osty mornings, winding uncertain tunes out of 
a brass horn, given him years before by a General 
Somebody, of the State Militia. In front of the long- 
porched tavern, the leaders would push out to the 
left, in order to give due magnificence to the right 
hand circle, which deposited the coach at the bar- 
room door. Bearish in fur, and sour in fiice. Bob 
would then roll from the seat, rush up to the bar, and 
for the first time open his mouth, to ejaculate, "Ja- 
maica and ginger!" The fiery draught would thaw 
out his tongue, as hot water does a pump, and after 
that it was easy work to pump him dry of any and 
all news on the line above. 

That was many years ago, and in a spot half a 
continent away. One morning, while at Sheridan, I 
heard the blast of a horn up the street, whose 
notes awakened echoes which had long lain dead 
and buried in boyhood's memory. A moment 
more, and out from an avenue of saloons the over- 
land stage rattled, and on its box sat the friend ot 
my childhood, "Old Bob." He had the identical 
horn, and it was the identical tune, which I had so 
often heard in the by-gone years, the only difference 
being that both were cracked, and the lungs behind 
the mouth-piece, touched by the winters of sixty-odd, 
wheezed a little. As the coach came to the door, I 



A LOVE-LETTER FOR THE PROFESSOR. 379 

jumped up by the "boot," and grasping the old fel- 
low's hand, introduced myself. Old Bob rubbed his 
eyes, which were weak and watery, and scanned me 
closely. 

"Well, well, lad," he said, "your face takes me 
now, sure enough. I mind your father and mother 
well, and you're the little rascal that stole my whip 
once, Avhen I was thawing out with Jamaica and 
ginger. Did you tell me by the old tune ? You did, 
eh? Well, truth is, lad, the horn won't blow any 
other. It's got to running in that groove, and when 
I try to coax any thing new out, it sets oif so that 
it frightens the horses." 

The coach was now ready for starting, and, as he 
gathered up the reins, my friend of auld lang syne 
called out to me, " When you get back to York State, 
if you sec any Rouse's Point people that ask for 
Old Bob, tell them he does n't take any Jamaica and 
ginger now. Tell them he's out on the plains, tryin' 
to get back some of the life the cussed stuff burnt 
out of him." And away the stage coach rattled, and 
soon was out of hearing. 

Next day's down stage brought intelligence that 
Bob's coach had been attacked by Indians, but the 
old fellow had handled his lines right skillfully, and 
brought mails and passengers through in safet}'. 

Our last day at Sheridan, for the Professor, was 
marked by two important events, namely : a commu- 
nication from the living present, and another from the 
dead past. The first came, as the postmark showed, 
by way of Lindsey, on the Solomon river. The Pro- 
fessor said it was simply an answer to some scientific 



380 BUFFALO LAND. 

inquiries, but, to our intense amusement, he blushed 
lilie a school-girl when Sachem bluntly remarked 
that the handwriting was feminine, and that the 
scientific information in question must certainly be 
contraband, as it was not offered for our benefit at all, 

A geologist in love is a phenomenon. The dusty 
museum is no place for Cupid. In his flights, the 
mischievous boy is apt to hit his head against fossil 
lizards, and his darts are intercepted by skulls which 
were petrified before he ever wandered through Para- 
dise and tried his first barb on poor Adam. The at- 
mosphere which inwraps the geologist comes from an 
unlovable age, in which monstrosities existed only 
by virtue of their expertness in devouring other mon- 
strosities. No stray spark of love-light flickered, 
even for an instant, over that waste of waters and 
gigantic ferns. 

It was apparent that science would suffer, unless 
the Solomon river was included in our homeward 
route. We had examined the heart of Buffalo Land, 
having traversed its center from east to west, and 
our party was disposed to oblige the Professor by re- 
turning along the northern border. Southward two 
hundred miles was the Arkansas, flowing near the 
southern limit of the buffalo region. While there 
were some reasons why we desired to visit it, and 
though it w^as, perhaps, equally rich in game, it 
promised nothing of greater interest, upon the whole, 
than the district we now proposed traversing. But 
of this more in the next chapter. 

Toward evening came our introduction to what 
we were pleased to imagine was a beauty of the past, 



"there's a buffeeler!" 381 

which hapjiened thus : As we were wandering 
among the Mexican teamsters loafing around the de- 
pot, an urchin, with half a shirt and very crooked 
legs, ran up to us, and exclaimed, over a half mas- 
ticated morsel of cheese, " Mister, there's a buffer- 
ler!" liis crumby fingers pointed in a direction 
midway between the horizon and a Mexican donkey, 
which its owner was trying to drag across the val- 
ley, and there, true enough, on the side of a brown 
ridge, not a mile oif, we saw the game, feeding as 
usual. 

Here was a chance for horseback hunting* aa'ain, 
which we had not attempted for several days. And 
what a splendid opportunity of showing the natives 
how well we could do the thing ! Our wagons had 
groaned under the burden of pelts and meats with 
which we had loaded them, and we were suffering 
just then from that dangerous confidence which first 
success is so apt to inspire. 

Half the pleasure of hunting, if sportsmen would 
but confess it, consists in showing one's trophies to 
others. It was not at all surprising, therefore, that 
the send-off found two-thirds of our force in the field. 
The day was warm, and, though the hunters ran far 
and fast, the bison went still further and faster, and 
escaped. He led us, however, to greater spoil than 
his own tough carcass ; for underneath the sod which 
his hoofs spurned, lay a treasure which glittered as 
temptingly to geological eyes as gold to the miner, 
when first struck by his prospecting pick. 

The Professor trotted out of town with becoming 

dignitv, following the hunters merely to avail him- 
21 



382 BUFFALO LAND. 

self of their protection, while examining the ridges 
around. A mile out, the heat and his rough-paced 
nag proved too much for him, and he threw himself 
upon the ground for a rest. Lying there, watching 
idly the little insects wandering about, his attention 
was attracted to a colony of burrowing ants, who, with 
a hole in the earth half an inch in diameter, were 
continually coming up, rolling before them small 
grains of sand and pebbles, the latter obtained far 
below, and a small mound of them already showing 
the extent of their patient labors. The Professor 
began to mark more closely the tiny builders, im- 
agining that he could distinguish one of the citizens 
going down, and recognize him again as he came 
up again with his burden from below. 

Occasionally, it seemed to the observant savan, 
something blue was brought out, which glittered 
more than sand. Looking closer, he discovered that 
the shining particles were beads of some bright sub- 
stance, and resembling exactly those worn by the In- 
dians of to-day. It thrilled him, as if he had been 
brought face to face with the far-off ages, when the 
world was young. Beneath, evidently, lay the dead 
of some forgotten tribe, and horse and man were 
resting upon a place of scpulcher. There was no 
mound to mark the spot, and if any ever existed, 
the seasons of ages had obliterated it. The savage 
races which now roam the plains never bury their 
dead, but lay the bodies on scaffolds, or hang them 
in trees. And so these little ants, robbing the graves 
far beneath us, were bringing to our gaze, on a bright 
summer day in the Nineteenth Century, the mysteries 



AXCIENT TRADITIONS. 383 

of ages already hoary with antiquity when Columbus 
first saw our shores. 

We found ourselves wondering to what race the 
hidden dead belonged, and whether the unpictured 
maidens of those days were pleasant to look upon, or 
true ancestors of the hideous and unromantic crea- 
tures who, with their savage lords, now roam the 
plains. Thinking of the tribes of the past brought 
those of the present to mind, and, not wishing to 
have our hair presented as tribute to some maiden 
wooed by treacherous Cheyenne, we turned our 
horses' heads homeward, bringing the beads with us, 
safel}'' deposited in one of our entomologist's pocket- 
cases. They remain among the trophies of our ex- 
pedition, and Mr. Colon has lately written me that 
he will have an excavation made, during the present 
year, at the spot where they were found. 

Those beads, I can not but think, form one link in 
a chain connecting an ancient people, perhaps the 
mound-builders, with the savage tribes of the present. 
There is a tradition among some of the Western In- 
dians that, centuries ago, a people, diifcrent in 
language and form from the red men, came from 
over the seas to trade beads for ponies. The buf- 
faloes were then larger, and the climate warmer, 
than now. Dissensions finally arose, in which the 
strangers were killed. Is there not reason to believe 
that this tradition gives us a glimpse of the time 
when some of the large mammals still existed on 
the plains, and the genial sun looked down upon 
pastures clothed in rich vegetation — a time and re- 
gion, probably, of perennial summer? 



384 BUFFALO LAND. 

Once, during our stay in Kansas, we were directed 
by a hunter to a spot where he had seen portions of 
an immense skeleton, and there found one vertebra 
only remaining of a mastodon. It afterward trans- 
pired that, shortly before our trip, some Indians had 
passed Fort Dodge with the large bones lashed on 
their ponies, taking them to a medicine-lodge on the 
Arkansas, to be ground up into good medicine. They 
stated that the bones belonged to one of the big buf- 
faloes which roamed over the plains during the times 
of their fathers. At that period, the Happy Hunt- 
ing Ground was on earth, but was afterward re- 
moved beyond the clouds by the Great Spirit, to 
punish his children for bad conduct. 

Many reasons, besides dim traditions, exist for the 
belief that those mysterious nations whose paths we 
have been able to trace from the iVtlantic west, and 
from the Pacific east, pushed inward until they met 
in the middle of the continent. The numerous 
mounds in the Western States, w4th the curious 
weapons and vessels which they contain, show that 
the nations then existing, and migrating toward the 
interior, were not only powerful but essentially un- 
like our modern Indians. To instance but one illus- 
tration of this, there are near Titusville, Pa., ancient 
oil w^ells, which bear unmistakable evidences of hav- 
ing been dug and worked by the mound-builders. 
Thus they speculated in oil, which of itself is a token 
of hi2;h civilization. 

Coming east from the Pacific coast, we find exist- 
ing on the very edge of the desolate interior ex- 
tensive ruins of ancient cities, of whose builders even 



SOD-HOUSES or THE PLAINS. 385 

tradition gives no account. By these and other re- 
mains which the gnawing tooth of Time has still 
spared to us, the people of those days tell us that 
they were full of commercial energy ; and who knows 
but they may have been as determined as our nation 
has ever been, to push trade across from ocean to 
ocean? It is highly probable also that the Indians of 
the interior were then far superior to the present 
tribes, as seems very fairly determined by many of 
the traditions and customs which obtain among the 
latter. 

In view of the foregoing considerations, it is not 
remarkable that the beads, denoting, as they did, a 
place and manner of burial unlike that of the sav- 
ages of the plains, interested us so much. It was 
a leaf, we could not but think, from the lost history 
of the mound-builders. 

A noticeable feature of life on the plains is the 
sod-house, there called an adobe, from some re- 
semblance to the Mexican structures of sun-dried 
brick. The walls of these primitive habitations are 
composed of squares of buffalo-grass sod, laid tier upon 
tier, roots uppermost. A few poles give support for 
a roof, and on these some hay or small brush is laid. 
Then comes a foot of earth, and the covering is com- 
plete. When well-constructed, these houses are 
water-proof, very warm in winter, and cool in sum- 
mer ; but when the eaves have been made too short 
to protect the walls, the latter are liable to dissolve 
under a heavy shower. Durin": a sudden rain at 
Sheridan, being obliged to turn out early one morn- 
ing to protect some goods, we discovered that the 



386 BUFFALO LAND. 

neighboring habitation had resolved itself into a 
mound of dirt, resembling somewhat a tropical ant- 
hill. We were still gazing at the ruins, when the 
owner, clad in the brief garment of night-wear, came 
spluttering through the roof, like a very dirty gnome 
discharged by a mud-volcano. While he stood there 
in the rain, letting the falling flood cleanse him off, 
he remarked, in a manner that for such an occasion 
was certainly rather dry — " Lucky that houses are 
dirt-cheap here, stranger, for I reckon this one 's sort 
o' washed ! " 

A person of small capital, as may readily be in- 
ferred, can live very comfortably on the plains. His 
house may be built without nail or board, and his 
meat may be obtained at no other expense than the 
trouble of shooting it. 

We saw many wooden buildings at the different 
stage stations, which had subterranean communica- 
tions with little sod watch-towers, rising a couple of 
feet above the ground, at a distance of forty or fifty 
yards from the main building. Loop-holes through 
their walls afforded opportunities for firing, and if 
the wooden stations were burned, the occupants could 
find a secure retreat. We heard of but one occasion 
in which the tower was ever used, but then 
it was most effectively, the savages, gathered close 
around the main building, being surprised and put 
to sudden flight, by the murderous fire which seemed 
to spring out of the ground at their rear. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

OCR PROGRAMME CONCLUDED — FROM SHERIDAN TO THE SOLOMON — FIERCE WINDS — 
A TERRIFIC STORM — SHAMCS' BLOODY APPARITION AND INDIAN WITCH — A RE- 

CONNOISSANCE — AN INDIAN BURIAL GROVE A CONTRACTOR'S DARING AND ITS 

PENALTY MORE VAGABONDIZING — JOSE AT THE LONG BOW — THE "WILD 

huntress' " COUNTERPART — SUAMCS TREATS US TO "CHILE '' — THE RESULT. 

GENTLEMEN," said the Professor, next morn- 
ing, at breakfast, "We have well-nigh ex- 
hausted Buffalo Land. North of us some twenty 
miles, the upper waters of the Solomon may be 
reached. I believe that district to be rich in fossils ; 
it is also interesting as the path over which the red 
men have so often swept on their missions of murder. 
The valley winds eastward and southward during 
its course, and will discharge us at Solomon City, a 
point well back on our homeward journey. There 
our expedition may fitly disband. Should it be con- 
sidered desirable, during the coming year, to explore 
the wild territories of the north-west, we can meet 
at such place as may be designated. What say 
you?" 

Our response was a unanimous vote in favor of 
accepting the programme thus sketched out. Some 
of us desired the trip, and all knew that the Pro- 
fessor would go at any rate. 

(387) 



388 BUFFALO LAND. 

Our path lay over the same undulating plain that 
we had been traversing for many weeks, the wind 
blowing fiercely in our teeth. The violent movement 
of the air over this vast surface is often unpleasant, 
and during a severe winter is more dangerous than 
the intense cold of the far north, as it i^enetrates 
through the thickest clothing. The winter of 1871-2, 
when numbers of hunters and herders were frozen 
to death, illustrated this to a painful degree. The 
months of December and January are usually mild, 
and no precautions were taken. On the morning of 
the most fatal day, it was raining ; in the afternoon, 
the wind veered and blew cold from the norths the 
rain changing to sleet, and this, in turn, to snow so 
blinding that objects became invisible at the dis- 
tance of a few feet. 

After the storm, near Hays City, five men belong- 
ing to a wood-train were found frozen to death. 
They had unloaded a portion of their wood, and en- 
deavored to keep up a fire, but the fierce wind blew 
the flames out, snatching the coals from the logs, and 
flinfi;in£>- them into darkness. The men seized their 
stores of bacon and piled them upon fresh kindling, 
but even the inflammable fat was quenched almost 
instantly. One of another party, who finally escaped 
the same sad fate, by finding a deserted dugout, said 
it seemed as if invisible spirits seized the tongues 
of flame and carried them, like torches, out into the 
awful blackness. Thousands of Texas cattle perished 
during that storm. One herder, in order to save his 
life, cut open a d3dng ox, and, after removing the 
entrails, took his place inside the warm carcass. 



EECONNOITERIXG FOR WITCHES. 389 

We noted a curious incident, relative to the 
wind's fantastic freaks on the plains, while at Sheri- 
dan. One day, during the prevalence of a north 
wind, we observed all the old papers, cards, and other 
light rubbish which ornament a frontier town, mov- 
ing off to the south like flocks of birds. Two days 
afterward, the wind changed, and the refuse all 
came flying back again, and passed on to the north- 
ward. 

On the first evening of our homeward journey 
from Sheridan, we encamped on what appeared to be 
a small tributary of the upper Solomon. While the 
tents were being pitched, and the necessary provis- 
ions unloaded, Shamus strolled toward a clump of 
trees half a mile off, in hopes of securing a wild 
turkey to add to his stores. He soon came running 
back in a great fright, to tell us that, as he was pass- 
ing among the trees, the black pacer of the jilains, 
with its bloody master in the saddle, had started out 
of a bottom meadow just beyond, and fled away into 
the gloom. This was a sufficiently ghostly tale in 
itself, but it was not all ; Shamus further averred 
that as he turned to fly, he saw a hideous Indian 
witch swinging to and fro in a tree directly before 
him. The spot was unwholesome, he assured us, and 
he urged instant removal. 

It seemed evident that our cook had some founda- 
tion for his fears, as his terror was too great, and his 
account too circumstantial for the matter to be 
simply one of an excited imagination. If there were 
Indians close by, it was necessary that we should 
know it at once, and avoid the danger of an attack 



390 BUFFALO LAND. 

at dawn. We organized a reconnoissance immedi- 
ately, and, six men strong, moved toward the timber. 
Scattering as much as possible, that concealed sav- 
ages might not have the advantage of a bunch-shot, 
we cautiously reached the border of the trees, and 
entered their shadows. We breathed more freely; 
if tree-fighting was to be indulged in, we now had an 
equal chance. It is a trying experience, reader, to 
advance within range of a supposed ambuscade, and 
the moment when one reaches the cover unharmed 
is a blessed one. The logs and stumps which seemed 
so hideous, when death was thought to be crouching 
behind, suddenly glow with friendship, and one is 
glad to know that he can hug such friends, should 
danger glare out from the bushes ahead. 

As we walked forward, Shamus' witch suddenly 
appeared before us. It was the body of a j)apoose, 
fastened in a tree. 

The spot was evidently an Indian burying-ground. 
The corpse had been loosened by the wind, and now 
rocked back and forth, staring at us. It was dried 
by the air into a shriveled deformity, rendered 
doubly grotesque by the beads and other articles 
with which it had been decked when laid away. We 
had neither time nor inclination to explore the grove 
for other bodies, preferring our supper and our 
blankets. As Shamus stoutly held to the story of 
the phantom pacer, we were forced to conclude that 
some stray Indian, from motives of either curiosity 
or reverence, had been visiting the grove when 
frightened out of it by our cook. In the gathering 



DESECRATION AND MURDER. 391 

gloom, a red shirt or blanket would have answered 
very well for bloody garments. 

These burial Si")ots are held in high reverence by 
the Indians, and their hatred of the white man re- 
ceives fresh fuel whenever the latter chops down the 
sacred trees for cord-wood. On one occasion, a con- 
tractor destroyed a burial grove, a few miles above 
Fort Wallace, to supply the post wdth fuel. The 
first blow of the axe had scarely fallen upon the 
tree, when some Indians who chanced to be in the 
neighborhood sent word that the desecrator would 
be killed unless he desisted. Messages from the wild 
tribes, coming in out of the waste, telling that they 
were watching, ought to have been warning suf- 
ficient. But he was reckless enough to disregard 
them, and continued his work. The trees were 
felled and cut up, and the wood delivered. The con- 
tractor went to the post for his pay, and as he took 
it, spoke in a jocose vein of the threat which had 
come to naught. 

Soon afterward, he set out for camp. Midway 
there, he heard the rush of trampling hoofs, and 
looking up, his horrified gaze beheld a band of 
painted savages sweeping down upon him from out 
the west. Five minutes later, he lay upon the plain 
a mutilated corpse, and every pocket rifled. The 
Indians had fulfilled their threats. The trees which 
to them answered the same purpose that the marble 
monuments which we erect over our dead do among 
us, had been broken up by a stranger, and sold. 
They acted very much as white men would have 
done under similar circumstances, except that the 



392 BUFFALO LAND. 

purloined greenbacks were probably scattered on the 
ground, or fastened, for tlie sake of the pictures, on 
wigwam walls, instead of being put out at interest. 

Our little adventure gave rise to another evening 
of " vagabondizing." Each one of our men, includ- 
ing the Mexicans, had some Indian tale of thrilling 
interest to relate, in which he had been the hero. 
Jose, a cross-eyed child of our sister Republic, spun 
the principal yarns of the occasion. He had com- 
menced outwitting Death while yet an infant, being 
content to remain quiet under a baker's dozen of 
murdered relations, that he might be rescued after 
the paternal hacienda had taken fire, by somebody 
who survived. 

After a careful analysis of several thousand re- 
markable stories which were told to us first and last 
during our journey, I have deemed it wise to repeat 
only those which we were able to corroborate after- 
ward. Among the latter is a narrative that was 
given us by the guide on this occasion, having for 
its text a side remark to the effect that crazy Ann, 
the wild huntress whom we met above Hays, was 
not the first lunatic who had been seen wandering 
upon the plains. About the close of 1867, a small 
body of Kiowas appeared in the vicinity of Wilson's 
Station, a few miles above Ellsworth, being first dis- 
covered by a young man from Salina, who was herd- 
ing cattle there. They rushed suddenly upon him, 
and he fled on his pony toward the station, a mile 
away. The chief's horse alone gained on him, and 
the savage was just poising his spear to strike him 
down, when the young man turned quickly in his sad- 



THE fugitive's HISTORY. 393 

die, and discharged a pistol full at his pursuer's 
breast, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, the half- 
dozen negro soldiers at the station had been alarmed, 
and now ran out and commenced firing. The Indians 
fled in dismay, without stopping to secure their dead 
chieftain, who was at once scalped by the station men, 
and left where he fell. 

Next morning the soldiers revisited the place, and 
found that the band had returned in the night, and 
removed the corpse. The negroes followed the trail 
for a mile or more, in order to discover the place of 
burial, and shortly found the chief's body lying ex- 
posed on the bank of the Smoky. It had apparently 
been abandoned immediately upon the discovery that 
the scalp had been taken, from the belief, probably, 
Avhicli all Indians entertain, that a warrior thus mu- 
tilated can not enter the Happy Hunting Ground. 
Now for the apparition in question. As the soldiers 
approached the spot, a white woman, in a wretched 
blanket, fled away. In vain they called out to her 
that they were friends ; she neither ceased her run- 
ning, nor gave them any answer. The men pursued, 
but the fugitive eluded them among the trees, and 
disappeared. A few days after, she was again seen, 
but once more succeeding in escaping. 

It afterward transpired that, a year or so before, 
a white girl had been stolen from Texas, and passed 
into possession of one of the tribes. She lost her 
reason before long, and, like all the unfortunate 
creatures of this class among the Indians, became 
an object of superstition at once. One morning she 
was missed by her captors, and a few days later a 



394 BUFFALO LAND. 

Mexican teamster reported having seen a strange 
woman, near his camp, who fled when he approached 
her. His description left no doubt of her identity 
with the missing captive. I have since conversed 
with some of the soldiers, then stationed at Wilson, 
and they assured me that the white girl was plainly 
visible to them on both occasions. As she was never 
afterward seen in the vicinity of civilization, the 
poor creature is believed to have perished from ex- 
posure. Possibly she was making her way to the 
settlements, when frightened back by the negroes, 
who may have resembled her late tormentors too 
closely to be recognized as friends. 

After one has been for months passing over a coun- 
try stained every-where by savage outrage, it is easy 
to understand how the man whose wife or sister has 
met the terrible fate of an Indian captive, can spend 
his life upon their trail, committing murder. For mur- 
der it is, when revenge, not justice, prompts the blow, 
and the innocent must suifer alike with the guilty. 

While breakfast was preparing next morning, some 
flend suggested to one of our Mexican teamsters that 
the Americans might like a taste of Mexico's stand- 
ard dish, " chile," of which, the fellow said, he had 
a good supply in his wagon-chest. Shamus was con- 
sulted, and assented at once, seeming delighted with 
the prospects of astonishing our palates with a new 
sensation. Know, reader, of an inquiring mind, 
that chile consists of red pepper, served as a boiling 
hot sauce, or stew. It is believed to have been in- 
vented by the Evil One, and immediately adopted 
in Mexico. 



A SENSATIOX INDEED. 395 

Shamus succeeded admirably in his design of con- 
cocting a sensation for us. Our alderman was ex- 
officio the epicure of the party, half of his duties as a 
JVew York city father having been to study carefully 
all known flavors. He always tasted new dishes, 
and on our behalf accepted or rejected them. When, 
therefore, the savory stew came before us, he experi- 
mented with a mouthful. Immediately thereafter a 
commotion arose in camp, and Shamus fled before the 
righteous wrath of Sachem. 



CHAPTER XXYIII. 

THE BLOCK-HOUSE ON THE SOLOMON HOW THE OLD MAN DIED — WACONDA DA — 

LEGEND OF WA-BOG-AHA AND HEWGAW — SABBATH MORNING— SACHEm's PO- 
ETICAL EPITAPH AN ALARM — BATTLE BETWEEN AN EMIGRANT AND THE IN- 
DIANS WAS IT THE SYDNEYS? TO THE RESCUE — AN ELK HUNT ROCKY 

MOUNTAIN SHEEP NOVEL MODE OF HUNTING TURKEYS IN CAMP ON THE 

SOLOMON A WARM WELCOME. 

ON the second day we reached the Solomon, and 
directed our course down its valley. Shamus' 
face was as bright as if he was about to blow up an 
English prison, which, for so pronounced a Fenian, 
indicated a happiness of the very highest degree. It 
was evident that Irish Mary had hold of the other 
end of our cook's heart-strings, and was twitching 
them merrily. Cupid had indeed found us in the 
solitude, and, as Sachem expressed it, was " whang- 
ing away " at two of our number, at least, most re- 
morselessly. 

Two days' ride brought us to the forks of the river, 
where a block-house had been built a year or two 
before, and in which we expected to find a resident. 
Since its abandonment by the troops, it had been 
occupied by an elderly man, known as Doctor Rose, 
who, solitary and alone, was holding this frontier 
post, that, when civilization came, he might possess 
it as a farm. We were disappointed. The barricade 

(396) 



DEATH m THE DARKNESS. 397 

was deserted, and every thing about it as silent as 
the grave, ^o curling smoke uprose among the 
trees, and the everlasting hills and dusky prairies 
stretched away on all sides in weird, wild desolation. 
We shook the door, and called, but found no answer. 
It was fastened upon the inside, and as we had no 
right to force it, we passed on, and encamped by the 
*' Waconda Da," or Great Spirit Salt Spring, a few 
miles below. 

We did not suppose that the old man we had 
sought was so near us. Up on a high ridge only a 
short distance off, his body was lying, another vic- 
tim of Indian murder. Savages had been raiding 
through the settlements below, and thinking himself 
exposed, he had contrived to fasten the door of the 
block-house from the outside, and attempted to escape 
in the night, ^o one but the red murderers saw the 
old man die, and how and when they met him will 
never be known ; but his body was found near the 
roadside, where the path wound over a high rid*>-e, 
and within sight of the Waconda, and there it was 
afterward laid in its lonely sepulcher by his sorrow- 
ing family. 

Down on a creek below, the savages, on the pre- 
vious evening, had been sweeping off the thin line of 
settlements, as a broom sweeps spiders' houses from 
the wall. Perhajos some dark demon eye, glancing 
up from the crimson trail, saw the old man, bending 
under the weight of years, feebly trying to save the 
few remaining days left him, and turned pitilessly 
aside to hurl him into that grave which, at best, 

could not be far off. No struggle was visible where 
22 



398 BUFFALO LAND. 

he fell, and it is probable that they approached him 
with a treacherous " How, how? " and a hand-shake, 
and, as he gave the grasp of friendship, struck him 
down, and launched him into eternity. 

Waconda Da, Great Sj^jirit Salt Spring, is among 
the most remarkable natural curiosities of the West, 
and is held in great reverence by the native tribes. 
It presents the appearance of a large conical mass of 
rock, about forty feet high, shaped like an inverted 
bowl, and smooth as mason-work. In the center of 
its upper surface, is the spring, shallow at the rim, 
and in the middle having a well-like opening, about 
twenty feet in depth. Into this pool the Indians cast 
their oiferings, ranging from old blankets to stolen 
watches, thereby to appease the Great Spirit. 
(From his location. Sachem thought the latter 
must be an old salt.) 

We fished with a hooked stick for some time, and 
v/ere rewarded by bringing up a ragged blanket and 
a shattered gunstock. All around the rim of the 
opening were incrustations of salt, and the brackish 
water trickled over, and ran in little rivulets down 
the huge sides. At the base of the rock, a dead buf- 
falo was fast in the mud, having died where he 
mired, while licking the Great Spirit's brackish 
altar. 

As no remarkable spot in Indian land should ever 
be brought before the public without art accompany- 
ing legend, I shall present one, selected out of 
several such, which has attached itself to this. To 
make tourists fully appreciate a high bluif or pic- 
turesquely dangerous spot, it is absolutely essential, 







.iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiaiiaa^ 



THE LEGEND OF WACOXDA. 401 

that some fond lovers should have jumped down it, 
hand-in-hand, in sight of the cruel parents, who 
struggle up the incline, only to be rewarded by the 
heart-rending^/«a/e. This, then, is 

THE LEGEND OF WACONDA. 

Many moons ago — no orthodox Indian story ever 
commenced without this expression — a red maiden, 
named Hewgaw, fell in love. (And I may here bo 
permitted to quote a theory of Alderman Sachem's, 
to the effect that Eve's daughters generally fall into 
every thing, including hysterics, mistakes, and the 
fashions.) Ilewgaw was a chief's daughter, and en- 
couraged a savage to sue for her hand who, having 
scalped but a dozen women and children, was only 
high private or " big soldier." Chief and lover were 
quickly by the ears, and the fiat went forth that Wa- 
bog-aha must bring four more scalps, before aspiring 
to the position of son-in-law. This seemed as impos- 
sible as Jason's task of old. War had existed for 
some time, and, as there was no chance for surprises, 
scalp-gathering was a harvest of danger. 

There seemed no alternative but to run for it, and 
so, gathering her bundle, Hewgaw sallied out from 
the first and only story of the paternal abode, as 
modern young ladies, in similar emergencies, do 
from the third or fourth. Through the tangled 
masses of the forest, the red lovers departed, and 
just at dawn were passing by the Waconda Spring, 
into whose waters all good Indians throw an offer- 
ing. Wa-bog-aha either forgot or did not wish to 



402 BUFFALO LAND. 

do so. Instantly the spring commenced bubbling 
wrathfully. So far, the Great Spirit had guided the 
lovers; now, he frowned. An immense column of 
salt water shot out of Waconda high into air, and its 
brackish spray dashed furiously into the faces of 
Wa-bog-aha and Hewgaw, and drove them back. 

The saltish torrent deluged the surrounding 
plains — putting every thing into a pretty pickle, as 
may well be imagined. The ground was so soaked 
that the salt marshes of Western Kansas still remain 
to tell of it, and, a portion of the flood draining off, 
formed the famous "salt plains." Along the Arkan- 
sas and in the Indian Territory, the incrustations are 
yet found, covering thousands of acres. The Kansas 
River, for hours, was as brackish as the ocean, its 
strangely seasoned waters pouring into the Missouri, 
and from thence into the Mississippi. It was this, 
according to tradition, which caused such a violent 
retching by the Father of Waters, in 1811. The 
current flowed backward, and vessels were rocked 
violently — phenomena then ascribed by the material- 
istic white man to an earthquake. 

Too late the luckless pair saw their mistake, and 
started for the summit of Waconda, just as the 
angry father put in his very unwelcome appearance. 
Had they avoided looking toward the spring, all, 
perchance, might yet have been well. Without ex- 
ception, tlie medicine men had written it in their 
annals that no eye but their own must ever gaze 
back at Waconda, after once passing it. Tradition 
explains that this was to avoid semblance of regret 
for gifts there offered the Great Spirit. Sachem, 



SABBATH IX THE SOLITUDE. 403 

however, is of the opinion that in giving these orders 
the medicine men had the gifts in their eye, and 
simply wished time to put them in their pockets. 
Hewgaw could not resist the temptation to peep. 
Immediately around the rock all was quiet, while 
without the narrow circle the descending torrents 
were dashed fiercely by the winds. The beasts of 
the plains, in countless numbers, came rushing in 
toward the Waconda, their forms white with coat- 
ings of salt, and probably representing the largest 
amount of corned meat ever gathered in one place. 

All the brute eyes — knightly elk, kingly bison, and 
currish wolves — were turned toward the top where 
"Wa-bog-aha and Ilewgaw stood, casting their valua- 
bles, as appeasing morsels, into the hissing spring. 
It refused to be quieted. Suddenly, the lovers were 
nowhere visible, and the salt storm ceased. Nothing 
could be found by the afflicted father, except a tress 
of his daughter's hair — perhaps her chignon. 

The old chief declared that, just as the end was 
approaching, the clouds were full of beautiful colors, 
and the air glittered with diamonds. The white 
man's science, however, coldly assumes that these 
appearances were only the rainbows and their re- 
flections, playing amidst the crystal salt shower. 

Sabbath morning dawned upon our camp, and ac- 
cording to our usual custom, we lay by for the day. 
At ten o'clock, the Professor read the morning serv- 
ice. It must have been a strange scene that we pre- 
sented, while uncouth teamsters and all — our family- 
pew the wide valley, with its seats of stones, and 



404 BUFFALO LAND. 

logs — sat listening to the beautiful language that 
told how the faith of which Christianity was born 
was cradled in a land as primitive and desolate as 
that which we were traversing. There, the wild Arab 
hordes hovered over the deserts ; here, America's 
savage tribes do the same over the plains. 

Our priest stood near one of Nature's grandest 
altar pieces, "Waconda Da." Reverence from the 
most irreverent is secured among such scenes and 
solitudes. Away from his fellows, man's soul in- 
stinctively looks upward, and yearns for some power 
mightier than himself to which to cling. The brittle 
straw of Atheism snaps when called upon for sup- 
port under these circumstances, and the blasphemy 
which was bold and loud among the haunts of men, 
here is hushed into silence, or even awed into rever- 
ential fear. 

The Professor improved the opportunity to deliver 
an excellent discourse U]3on the wonderful evidences 
of God's power which geology is daily revealing. 
His peroration was quite flowery, and in a strain 
very much as follows : 

"Science is yet in its infancy, and many things 
which seem dark to us will be clear to our de- 
scendants. Future generations will doubtless won- 
der at our boiler explosions, and our railroad acci- 
dents. Lightning expresses Avill be used only for 
freight, while machines navigating the air, at one 
hundred miles an hour, will carry the passengers. 
Steam, electricity, and the magnetic needle have all 
been open to man's appropriative genius ever since 



sachem's offering to the lovers' memory. 405 

the world offered him a home, and yet he has only 
just now comprehended them. The future will see 
instruments boring thousands of feet into the earth 
in a day, and developing measures and mysteries 
which the world is not now ripe for understanding. 
Perhaps, the telescopes of another century may bring 
our descendants face to face with the life of the 
heavenly bodies, and give us glimpses of the inhabit- 
ants at their daily avocations. Who knows but that 
the beings who people other worlds in the infinite 
ocean of space around us, compared with which worlds 
our little planet is insignificant indeed, are able, by 
the use of more powerful instruments than any with 
which we are acquainted, to hold us in constant re- 
view? Our battles they may look upon as we would 
the conflicts of ants, and they wonder, perchance, 
why so quarrelsome a world is permitted to exist 
at all." 

^ext morning Sachem was up at daybreak, ex- 
amining the spot where Hewgaw and AYa-bog-aha 
met their fate, and underwent their iridescent an- 
nihilation. His offering to their memory we found 
after breakfast, tacked up in a prominent position be- 
side the spring. The inscription, evidently intended 
as a sort of epitaph, was written on the cover of a 
cracker-box, and struck me as so peculiar that I was 
at the pains of transcribing it among our notes. I 
give it to the reader for the purpose, principally, of 
showing the unconquerable antipathies of an alder- 
man. 



406 BUFFALO LAND. 



In Memoeiam. 



Lot's wife, you remember, looked back, 
(What woman could ever refrain?) 

And instantly stood in her track 
A pillar of salt on the plaiu. 

If all were thus cursed for the fault, 
Who peep when forbidden to look, 

The feminine pillars of salt 

Could never be written in book. 

Hewgaw was an Indian belle 

Which no one could ring — she was fickle ; 
Some scores of her lovers there fell 

(Where she did at last) in a pickle. 

Thus salt is the only thing known 

Entirely certain of keeping 
Flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, 

Out of the habit of peeping. 

Unless the tradition has lied, 

Our maiden may claim, with good reason, 
That she is a well-preserved bride. 

And certainly bride of a season. 

Wa-bog-aha big was a brave — 

The Great Spirit salted him down : 

Braves seldom get corned in the grave. 
They 're oftener corned in the town. 

My rhyming, you find, is saline. 
Quite brackish its toning and end ; 

The moral — far better to pine 

Than wed and get " salted," my friend. 



THE FRONTIERSMAN AT BAY. 407 

Soon after sunrise we took our way down the 
river, intending to reach the Sydney farm on the fol- 
lowing day, and there spend the necessary time in 
preparing our specimens for immediate shipment 
when we should arrive at Solomon City. The Pro- 
fessor made desperate efforts to appear entirely 
wrapped up in science, and his devotion to geology 
was something wonderful. Hitherto he had been 
inclined to urge us forward, but now he made a show 
of holding us back. Did he do so with a knowledge 
that our necessities for food and forage would be suf- 
ficient spur, and was he simply shielding his weak 
side from Sachem's attacks? 

We had proceeded but a few miles on our journey, 
when the guide rode back, and reported fresh pony 
tracks across the road ahead of us. This was an un- 
questionable Indian sign, but as the trail seemed to 
be leading north, we took no precaution ; our route 
was over a high divide, where ambushing was im- 
possible. 

Approaching Limestpne Creek, the road wound 
down the face of a precipitous bluff, into the valley 
below. We had just commenced the descent, when 
the now familiar cry of " Injuns ! " came back from 
the men in front, and following closely on the cry we 
heard the echoing report of firearms. We looked in 
the direction of the sound, and saw close to the trees 
an emigrant wagon, while beyond it, but at fully one 
hundred yards' distance, four or five Indians were 
riding back and forth in semi-circles, and firing pis- 
tols. The emigrant stood beside his oxen, with rifle 
in readiness, but apparently reserving his fire. 



408 BUFFALO LAND. 

" That man knows his biz ! " exclaimed our guide, 
as he urged the teams forward, that we might aiford 
rescue. "Injuns never bump up agin a loaded gun." 

A gleam of calico was visible in the wagon, and 
another rifle barrel, held by female hands, seemed 
peering out in front. The general aspect of the as- 
sailed outfit reminded us strongly of the Sydney 
family, and suspicion was strengthened by a very un- 
scientific yell from the Professor, as he started off at 
break-neck speed down the bluff for a rescue, with no 
other weapon whatever in his hand than a small 
hammer he had just been using for breaking stones. 
Mr. Colon seemed equally demented, following close 
upon Paleozoic's heels with a bug-net. Shamus, at 
the moment, happened to be astride his donkey, and 
giving an Irish war-whoop which reached even to the 
scene of combat, straightway charged over the lime- 
stone ledges in a cloud of white dust. Our appear- 
ance upon the scene was a surprise to Lo. The 
Indians stood not upon the order of their going, but 
"lit out on the double-quick," as our guide expressed 
' it, and were soon out of sight. 

We found that the emigrants were named Burns, 
the family comprising the parents and their two chil- 
dren. The man stated that he had no fear of the 
savages. Pie had been twice across the plains, and 
made it a rule never to throw a shot away. " If they 
can draw your fire," said he, "the fellows will charge. 
But they do n't want to look into a loaded gun." 
Mrs. Burns had come to her husband's rescue with 
an expedient worthy the wife of a frontiersman. 
Plaving no gun, she pointed from under the canvass 



A HERD OF ELK AHEAD. 409 

the handle of a broom. This, being woman's favorite 
weapon, was handled so skillfully that the savages 
imagined it another rifle. In our log-book she was 
chronicled at once as fully the equal of that revolu- 
tionary hero, who one evening made prisoner of a 
British officer, by crooking an American sausage 
into the semblance of a pistol, and presenting it at 
the Englishman's breast. 

There were two of our party who did not rejoice as 
they should have done, after rendering such timely 
aid to the Burns family. How romantic had the res- 
cued party only proved to be the one which was at 
first suspected ! 

Where this little scene occurred, there are home- 
steads now, which will soon develop into thrifty 
farms. The blessing of a railroad can not be long 
deferred. A year, a month, even a week sometimes, 
makes wonderful changes in Buffalo Land, when the 
tide of immigration is rolling forward upon it. Be- 
fore the present year is ended, the beautiful valley of 
Limestone Creek will be teeming with civilized life, 
and the savage red man, there is good reason to be- 
lieve, has departed from it forever. 

After bidding the Burns family good-bye, we 
traveled without further adventure until near noon, 
when the guide rode back, and directed our attention 
to some elk, which he pointed out, some distance 
ahead. The bodies of the herd were hidden by a 
ridge, but above its brown line we could plainly 
see their great antlers, looking like the branches of 
trees, moving slowly along. There was but one 
method of getting near the game, and that was im- 



410 BUFFALO LAND. 

mediately adopted. Up the side of the sloping ridge 
we carefully crawled, and, reaching the summit,- 
peeped over. Half a dozen big antlered fellows, and 
as many does, were feeding along the slope below. 
Only one of them, a splendid male, was within shoot- 
ing distance at all, and even for it the range was 
long. The guide and Muggs fired together, breaking 
the poor creatm-e's shoulder. 

What a startled stare the noble animals flashed 
back at the crack of the rifles, and how quickly they 
disappeared. Their trot was perfectly grand — great, 
firm strokes which seemed to fairly fling the bodies 
onward. We had hardly time to realize having 
fired, when their tails bade us distant adieu. It is 
said that no horse can keep up with the trot of the 
elk. If charged upon suddenly, however, from close 
quarters, he is frightened into an awkward gallop, 
and may then be overtaken easily. 

Our wounded game looked formidable, and we 
approached cautiously. He made several eflbrts to 
run, but each time fell forward, in plunging slides, on 
his nose and side, rubbing the hair from the latter, 
and daubing the ground with blood from his nostrils. 
Muggs felt free to confess that even the pampered 
stags of England, when perilously roused from their 
well-kept glens, by over-fed hunters in killing coats 
and boots, never presented such a picture of wild 
beauty and agony, colored just the least bit with 
dano-er. At this " kill " we lost our black hound. 
Tempted to incaution by the sight of the noble elk 
standing wounded and at bay, or else excited by its 
blood, the dog sprang forward. A chance blow of the 



TURKEY HUNTING ON A NEW PLAN. 411 

massive horns knocked him over, and in an instant 
more the beast had stamped him to death. 

We finished the elk by a united volley, and 
added him to our trophies. The horns, resting upon 
their tips, gave space for one of our Mexicans, five 
feet two in stature, to pass beneath them erect. Elk 
hairs are remarkably elastic. Single ones obtained 
from this specimen stretched by trial with the fingers, 
and detached from the skin so easily that the latter 
seemed worthless. 

During the day we found and secured the remains 
of two saurians — one about eight and the other ten 
feet in length, and also the tooth of a fossil horse, 
quite a number of curious bubble-shaped pieces of 
iron pyrites, and some fine petrifactions, in the way 
of butternuts and fragments of trees. The soft, white 
limestone, mentioned more than once before in this 
record of our expedition, appeared along our paths 
in fine outcrops, and contained very perfect fossil 
shells. 

Abe, our guide, told us that a year or two pre- 
vious, during a winter of unusual severity, he had 
found a flock of Rocky Mountain sheep feeding near 
the Solomon. This was the only instance which 
came to our knowledge of that animal having been 
seen upon the plains. 

We had an amusing experience, before night, with 
turkeys, hunting them in novel style. The birds 
were wild from recent pursuit, and, the instant they 
saw us, would leave the narrow fringe of timber, and 
run off into the ravines. Then would commence a 
ludicrous chase, each rider plying spurs, and pur- 



412 BUFFALO LAXD. 

suing. There went Sacliem, on his long-legged pur- 
chase, the beast staggering and stumbling through 
ravines ; and Semi also, upon Cynocephalus, whose 
abbreviated tail was hoisted straight in air, while at 
the other extremity his nose stretched well out at a 
right angle therewith. Rearward was the Mexican 
donkey, arguing the point with the Dobeen whether 
or not to enter the race. Ahead of all went the wild 
turkeys, running like ostriches. The bird is a heavy 
one, and its short flights and runs, therefore, though 
rapid, can not be long continued. Seeing the pursuit 
gaining, it would turn to the woods again for pro- 
tection. Other riders would there head it off, and 
soon, completely exhausted and only able to stagger 
along, it was easily taken. In this manner, we ob- 
tained over twenty turkeys while passing along the 
river. 

That evening we reached the little settlement on 
the Solomon, which was the Canaan of all our 
wanderings to certain members of our party, and 
went into camp among the Sydneys and their 
neighbors. Our welcome was a warm one, and it 
took Shamus but a few moments to find our friend's 
kitchen, where he at once installed himself in the 
dual capacity of lover and assistant cook, discharging 
the duties of each position to the entire satisfaction 
of all concerned. Our supper with the Sydney 
family seemed like civilization again, notwithstand- 
ino; that we were still on the uttermost bounds of 
civilized manners and customs. The Professor, sit- 
ting next to Miss Flora, was the very picture of 
happiness, and " all went merry as a marriage bell." 








TRAIRIF. CHICKENS. 






b.^^ i 






HEAD OF AN ELK. 




Wfl.D T IKKFY. 




r.!i..\VER. 

MORE OF OUR .SPFXIMENS — PHOTOCiRAPHED BY J. LEE KNKIHT, TOPEKA, KANS. 



TENACIOUS GRIPE AGAIX. 415 

Even Sachem ceased to sulk before the meal was 
ended. 

At dusk, as we were assuring ourselves by personal 
inspection that the camp was in proper order, a fa- 
miliar form came stalking toward us in the gathering 
gloom. "Tenacious Gripe!" cried the Professor; 
and so it was. Our friend's ribs had been repaired, 
and he was now on a mission along the Solomon 
river, holding railroad meetings in the different 
counties. The progressive westerner, when he has 
nothing else to do, is in the habit of starting out on a 
tour for the purpose of inducing the dear people to 
vote county bonds for a new railroad, and such a 
westerner was Gripe. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

OUR LAST NIGHT TOGETHER THE REMARKABLE SHED-TAIL DOO HE RESCUES HIS 

MISTRESS, AND BREAKS UP A MEETING — A SKETCH OF TERRITORIAL TIMES BY 

GRIPE — Montgomery's expedition for the rescue op john brown's com- 
panions SCALPED, AND CARVING HIS OWN EPITAPH — AN IRISH JACOg 

"survival OF THE FITTEST" SACHEM's POETICAL LETTER POPPING THE 

QUESTION ON THE RUN — THE PROFESSOR's LETTER. 

SUPPER over, we made an engagement with our 
hospitable friends for their presence at a sort of 
"state dinner" we proposed giving the next day, 
and then returned to our own camp. A number of 
the settlers soon came strolling in, and among them 
one bringing a most remarkable dog, of the " shed- 
tail " variety. The animal was well known to fame 
in that section, for having attacked some Indians who 
had taken his mistress captive and were endeavor- 
ing to place her upon one of their j^onies, and so de- 
laying them that the neighbors were able to arrive 
and give rescue. It was claimed that thirty shots 
were fired at him without effect, which, if true, 
proved that either those Indians were exceedingly 
bad marksmen, or that the small fraction of caudal 
appendage which the beast possessed acted as a 
protective talisman. 

(416) 



IX THE WEOXG, LATTERLY. 417 

We had often seen dogs without tails, but previous 
to this had always sujiposed that a depraved human 
taste, not nature, had been at the root of it. Tail- 
wagging we had considered as much the born pre- 
rogative of a dog as a laugh is that -of man. It is 
true some men do not laugh, but the child did. A 
dog's tail embodies his laughing faculty, or rather 
one might call it a canine thermometer. It rises and 
f^llls with his feelings, in moments of depression go- 
ing down to zero between his legs, and again rising 
when the canine temperature becomes more even. 

" That thar dorg, stranger, is of the shed-tail 
variety," said its owner, when we solicited infor- 
mation. " Whole litter had nothin' but stumps. 
Killed most on 'em off, 'cause, havin' nothin' to wag, 
visitin' people could n't tell whether they was goin' 
to bite, or be pleased. Some tinie ago, a travelin' 
school-teacher giv' him a plaguy Latin name, but we 
call him Shed, for short. He knows, just as well as 
you and I, that he 's in the wrong, latterly, and as 
soon as you look at him, or touch where the tail 
ought ter be, he hides and howls. He 's sensitive as 
a human." 

Saying this, our new acquaintance leaned over the 
dog, which was lying asleep, and gave the animal 
what he called a " latterly touch." Although it was 
but the gentle contact of a finger tip, the poor 
creature jumped up, uttered a dismal howl, and fled 
off among the wagons. 

" That dorg," continued the owner, " would be one 

of the best critters out, if it was n't for his short cut. 
23 



418 BUFFALO LAND. 

He '11 figlit Injuns, or wild cats, and take any amount 
of blows on his head, if they '11 only avoid his mis- 
fortin.' " 

We remarked that he seemed to have been shot 
in the side, some time. 

"Yes, got a whole charge of quail shot slapped 
inter him. You see the way it was, wer this. Most 
every section has one or two scraggy, rattle-brained 
fellers, allers loungin' round, takin' free drinks, and 
starvin' ther families. Whar we come from was 
one of this sort, never of no account to no one. We 
had a temperance meetin' one day, and this Hib, as 
they called him, wer opposed to it. He was afraid 
they 'd shut up Old Bung's whisky shed. Well, we 
was all a gathered, listenin' to the serpent and its 
poisoned sting, and that sort o' thing, and had about 
concluded to go for Old Bung, wdien that contrairy, 
ornery Hib broke us up. He goes and gets a fresh 
coon skin, and sneaks all round the school-house, 
draggin' it arter him, and makin' a sort o' scented 
circle. Then he goes and gets Shed Tail there, 
who was powerful on coons, and sets him on that 
thar track. Shed give just one sniif, and ojDened 
right out. The way he shied round that school- 
house wer a sin. In five minutes, all the dogs of the 
village were at his heels, and goin' round that circle 
like the spokes in a wheel. 

" It w^as just a round ring of the loudest yelling 
you ever heard. Every dog thought the one just 
ahead of him had the coon. All the meetin' folks 
come a pourin' out, with sticks and chairs, and what 
svith beatin' and coaxin' they got all off the trail but 



Montgomery's ExrEDiTiox. 419 

old Shed. Half the people went to chasin' that 
dorg, while the balance held onto the others. But 
Shed just stuck to that coon track, like all possessed, 
dodgin' atween our legs, or sheerin' off, and catch in' 
ther trail agin just beyond. He finally upset Old 
Squire Bundy's wife, and the Squire got mad, and 
slapped some No. 7 into his ribs." 

The shed-tail's owner, waxing more and more elo- 
quent with his subject, had just commenced the 
narrative of another Indian battle in which his 
favorite had figured, when we became interested in a 
wordy political combat between Tenacious Gripe and 
a genuine specimen of the " reconstructed," the first 
and only one of that genus that we saw in Kansas. 
His clothes had the famous butternut dye, and his 
shirt bosom was mapped into numerous creeks and 
rivers by the brown stains of tobacco overflows. 
The dispute waxed warm, and grew more and more 
prolific of eloquence. At length, the reconstructed 
beat a retreat, and our orator was left in triumphant 
possession of the field. 

Drawing fresh inspiration from his success, Gripe 
devoted another hour to an account of the early 
struggles in Kansas against these " mean whites." 
He gave us many vivid descriptions of the time 
when men died that their children might live. 
Among other relations was that of the expedition 
under Montgomery, to rescue the two companions of 
old John Brown from the prison at Charlestown, 
Virginia, a short time after the stern hero himself 
had there been hung. 

The dozen of brave Kansas men interested in the 



420 BUFFALO LAND. 

enterprise reached Harrisburg, with their rifles taken 
apart and packed in a chest, and sent scouts into 
Virginia and Maryland. It was the middle of 
winter, and deep snow covered the ground. They in- 
tended, when passing among the mountains, to bear 
the character of a hunting party. Every member of 
that little band was willing to push on to Charles- 
town, notwithstanding the whole State of Virginia 
was on the alert, and pickets were thrown out as far 
even as Hagerstown, Maryland. The plan was, by a 
bold dash to capture the jail, and then, with the 
rescued men, make rapidly for the seaboard. Al- 
though the expedition failed, it gave the world a 
glimpse of that heroic western spirit which was not 
only willing to do battle upon its own soil, but con- 
tent to turn back and meet Death half-way when 
comrades were in danger. 

Gripe did not accompany the expedition. Yet he 
grew so eloquent over the deep snow that stretched 
drearily before the little band, the gloomy mountains 
which frowned down defiance, and the people, far 
more inhospitable than either, who stood behind the 
natural barriers, filled to fanaticism with suspicion, 
fear, and hate, that we were sorry he had not been 
of the party. A man of such congressional qualifi- 
cations as were his, might have been able to steal 
even the prisoners. 

On other matters of Kansas history, Gripe could 
speak from personal experience. He had twice en- 
tered the territory during the period when the Free 
State and pro-slavery forces were doing battle for it. 
In one instance, the journey had been overland 



SALT-WATER COFFEE. 421 

through Missouri, and in the other, up the Missouri 
River. On the first occasion, he had suffered 
numberless indignities at the hands of border ruf- 
fians, and would have been killed, had there been 
any thing in the least degree stronger than suspicion 
for them to act upon. On the other trip, the steam- 
boat was stopped at Lexington, and a pro-slavery 
mob boarded the vessel, and searched for arms. The 
whole fabric of Kansas material which Gripe wove 
for us that evening was figured all over with battles, 
and murders, and tar-and-feather diversions. Had 
we been writing a history of the State, we might 
have accumulated a fair share of the material then 
and there. 

Another subject this evening discussed around our 
camp-fire was the future of the vast plains which we 
had been traversing. Two or three of the settlers 
were ranchemen, who had lived in this region for 
many years. They were very enthusiastic about the 
section of their adoption, and affirmed stoutly that 
within fifteen years the whole tract would be under 
cultivation. 

I can answer for our whole party that, beyond a 
doubt, the climate is healthy and the soil rich. For 
the first one hundred miles, after reaching the 
eastern boundary of the plains, springs and pure 
streams abound. Further west, the water supply is 
not so plentiful. On only one occasion, however, did 
we sufi^er any inconvenience on this score, and that 
was upon the very headwaters of the Saline. Going 
into camp late, cofi*ee was hastily prepared, and the 
quality of the water not noticed. It proved to be 



422 BUFFALO LAND. 

quite salty, and as we drank liberally of the coffee, 
and were unable afterward to find a spring, our suf- 
ferings before morning amounted to positive torture. 
Each one of the party found that his lungs were 
benefited by our sojourn on the plains. I believe 
that a consumptive could find decidedly more relief 
in Buffalo Land than among the mountains further 
west. 

During the evening, we added considerably to our 
already very full notes concerning the wild tribes of 
the western plains. So many are the "true tales of 
the border " which one can hear in a few months of 
such journeyings as ours, that the recital of even a 
tithe of the number would become tiresome. The red- 
bearded owner of " Shed-tail " added to our store, by 
relating an adventure which he claimed had oc- 
curred to himself and Buffiilo Bill, when they were 
teamsters together in an overland train. It was to 
the effect that while riding ahead of the wagons, to 
find a crossing over the Sandy, they discovered 
the skeleton of a man lying at the foot of a cotton- 
wood tree. As they dismounted for the purpose of 
finding some means, if possible, of identifying the 
remains, their attention was caught by letters cut in 
the bark. These they deciphered sufficiently to see 
that it had been an attempt by some weak hand to 
carve a name. A broken knife, lying near the bones, 
told plainly enough who the worker at the epitaph 
had been, and other signs revealed to the frontiers- 
men the whole death history. The man had been 
assailed by savages, scalped, and left as dead. The 
work of the knife showed that he must have re- 



LO'S ESPECIAL FORTE. 423 

covered sufficiently to crawl to the tree, and there 
make a faint effijrt to leave some record of his name 
and fate. The straggling gashes indicated that he 
had continued the task even while death was blind- 
ing his eyes. A few more drops of blood, and per- 
haps the mystery of years, now shrouding the 
history of some family hearth-stone, would have 
been cleared away. 

We had no opportunity of verifying this story of 
red beard's, but as no occasion existed for telling a 
lie, and the neighbors of the narrator there present 
seemed much interested in the account, we accepted 
it as truth. It was apparently no attempt to impose 
upon the strangers. But I would here state, as a 
specimen feature of the frontier experience of all trav- 
elers, that whenever, at any of our camps, surrounding 
ranchemen or hunters discovered any member of our 
party taking notes, there were straightway spun out 
the toughest yarns which ever hung a tale and 
throttled truth. 

Of one fact our journey thoroughly convinced us. 
Lo's forte has no connection with the fort of the 
pale-faces. An unguarded hunter, or a defenseless 
emigrant wagon, or unarmed railroad laborer, grati- 
fies sufficiently his most warlike ambition. The 
savages of the plains, in their attacks upon the 
whites, have been like bees, stinging whenever op- 
portunity offers, and immediately disappearing in 
space. Their excuses for the murders they commit 
have been as various as their moods. At one time 
it is a broken treaty, at another the killing of their 
buffalo, and trespassing upon the hunting-grounds, 



424 BUFFALO LAND. 

and again it is some other grievance. It may be some 
gratification for them to know that it is estimated 
that, until within the last three years, a white man's 
scalp atoned for each buffalo killed by his race. 

In our various wars with the Indians, it is worthy 
of remark the bison have been like supply posts at 
convenient distances, to the hostile bands. Traveling 
without any supplies whatever, and therefore rapidly, 
a few moments suffice to kill a buffalo near the camp- 
ing spot, and roast his flesh over the chips. The 
pony, meanwhile, makes a hearty meal on the grass. 
On the other hand, our troops, in pursuit of these 
bands, have had to encumber themselves with bag- 
gage wagons, or pack-muleSj bearing food and forage. 

Among our notes, I find recorded many incidents 
illustrative of the aptitude which the savage mind 
possesses for dissimulation. For instance, in our 
council at Hays City, White Wolf could apparently 
understand only our sign language ; yet when the in- 
terpreter advised the Professor, in good English, not 
to accept the little Mexican hurro, unless content to 
return its weight in something much more valuable 
than jackass meat, the chief could not refrain from 
smiling. As Indians are not given to facial reve- 
lations, the colloquy must have struck him as very 
apropos and very amusing. We concluded then and 
there, that it was unsafe to talk Indian sign with the 
savages for effect, and meanwhile express our real 
sentiments to each other in English ; and upon this 
opinion we habitually acted thereafter. 

This was our last night together as a party. The 
Professor had signified his intention of remaining a 



FAREWELL TO THE PLAINS. 425 

few days longer iii:)on the Solomon, for the purpose 
of studying the surrounding country. Shamus had 
asked a discharge, in order to engage as farm hand 
for Mr. Sydney — an Irish Jacob taking to agriculture 
as a means of obtaining his Rachel. We received 
numerous invitations to divide our party for the 
night among the settlers, and, glad to enjoy again 
the luxury of a roof, Sachem and I gratefully ac- 
cepted the hospitabilities of a neighboring log-cabin 
among the trees. 

The next day was busily occupied in separating 
from our loads such things as the Professor and Sha- 
mus required for their further sojourn in the Solomon 
valley. The morning following, we bade them both 
good-bye, and have seen neither leader or servant 
since. With but one mishap, the remainder of our 
party reached safely the more familiar haunts of 
civilization. Doctor Pythagoras was the victim of 
our exceptional misfortune. While attempting to 
mount his transformed prize-fighter, the meta- 
morphosed bully struck out from the shoulder, and 
the doctor was floored. We found it necessary to 
carry him upon a rude stretcher to Solomon Cit}'", 
and provide him with a section on a sleeping car for 
transit to the East. As we shook his hand at part- 
ing, and bade him a last good-bye, he exclaimed, 
"My young friends, I can not die yet. I shall re- 
cover and outlive j^ou all. I believe in the theory of 
the ' survival of the fittest.' " 

Ever since our return, the tide of emigration, pour- 
ing onward from the Atlantic, has lapped further 
and further out upon the surface of the plains ; and 



426 BUFFALO LAND. 

still, as truly now as when good old Bishop Berkeley 
first wrote the line, "the Star of Empire westward 
takes its way." 

While I was preparing these notes for the press, I 
received the following characteristic letter from Sa- 
chem, dated at his haunt in New York. It was at 
first a puzzle, but I found the key in a note inclosed 
by him, which he had lately received from the Pro- 
fessor. 

sachem's letter. 

To crack a head and break a heart, 

Are known as Paddy's forte ; 
In kitchen, jail, or low-back cart — 

No matter where — he '11 court. 

To don a rig, and dance a jig, 

Attend a wake or wedding, 
He'll sell his own or neighbor's pig 

And only rag of bedding. 

He lives a happy, careless life, 

Hand to mouth, and heart in hand ; 

Eeady for either love or strife, 
Building castles on the sand. 

"With peck of trouble ever full. 

Good measure, running over, 
He deals in stock — the Irish bull, 

And with it, lives in clover. 

Love's labor is the only taste 

That Paddy's mind inherits : 
He thinks, where maidens run to waste, 

The harem has its merits. 



THE PROFESSOE's LETTER. 427 

And so Dobeen, upon his course, 

Love's gallop quick begau ; 
The gal up on the other horse, 

He courted, as they ran. 

The bows around the maid were more 

Than suited to her mind ; 
Cupid and Shamus rode before, 

The savage rode behind. 

They each pursued the maiden coy. 

Two wooed her a la bow; 
The arrow tips of one were joy, 

The other's tips were woe. 

'T is said that Shamus won the race, 

And saved his hair and bacon : 
If Mary loved his wooing pace, 

His heart may stop its achin'. 

And this was the Professor's letter, which had 
evidently set the aldermanic machine to grinding 
doggerel again: 



"On the Solomon, 
LiNDSEY, Ottawa County, Kansas. 



} 



. . . . "I have run down here after my mail. 
Am progressing finely with my studies. Shamus had 
an adventure yesterday. Mary and he rode over on 
horseback to a neighbor's, a mile away, and on the 
return were pursued by an Indian. Hard riding 
brought them in safely. Mary tells her mistress 
that, during the terrors of the chase, Shamus would 



428 BUFFALO LAXD. 

not refrain from courting. He lashed her horse, and 
spurred his, and popped the question, alternately. 

" I shall i^robably remain here a month or so 
longer, as I am much interested in the Flora of the 
Solomon Valley," 

The italicized word in the last sentence is under- 
scored, and its initial letter bears evidence of hav- 
ing been maliciously transformed into a capital 
letter by Sachem. 



THE END. 



APPEXDIX. 



PRELIMINARY TO THE APPENDIX. 



fTHHE officials of the new States and Territories are con- 
stantly overwhelmed with letters of inquiry from all parts 
of our own country and the Canadas, and even from Europe. 
Some of the writers wish particulars concerning the opportuni- 
ties that exist for obtaining homes ; others seek information as 
to the best points for hunting ; while what to bring with them, 
in the way of household goods, and farming implements, or 
guns, dogs, etc., is the common question of nearly all. 

While engaged in preparing " Buffalo Land " for the press, 
I published in a newspaper at Topeka a brief summary of the 
information then at my command upon the subjects above 
named. The result was the receipt of a large number of letters, 
asking for all sorts of details, many of which I found it im- 
possible to answer through the mail. This fact, added to the 
requests of various public officers, whom I have the pleasure 
of counting among my most esteemed personal friends, has in- 
duced me to attach an appendix to the present volume, con- 
taining a condensed statement of such matters (not elsewhere 
described in this work) as will assist parties westward bound, 
whether emigrants, sportsmen, or tourists. 

(431) 



432 PRELIMINARY TO THE APPENDIX. 

The Appendix which follows is divided into three chapters. 
The first of these embodies information of especial interest to 
the immense army of home-seekers who, from every quarter, 
are turning their eyes eagerly and hopefully toward the free 
and boundless West. The second oliapter is designed for the 
use of the sportsman, and the third furnishes very valuable 
and instructive details concerning the topography, resources, 
climate, etc., of the plains, and, more particularly, a de- 
scription of the larger streams, with their contiguous val- 
leys, which drain the vast area included within the limits of 
Buffalo Land. W. E. W. 



A.PPENDIX. 



CHAPTER FIRST. 



FURTHER INFORMATION FOR THE HOME-SEEKER. 



24 



APPENDIX. 



CONTENTS OF CHAPTER FIRST. 

PAGE 

Come to the Great West, 435 

Shocld there not be Compulsory Emigration, 436 

"Get a Good Ready," 437 

Homestead Laws and Regulations, 438 

The State op Kansas, 447 

The Cost of a Farm, 448 

A few more Practical Suggestions, 449 



appe:^dix. 



CHAPTER FIRST. 

FURTHER INFORMATION FOR THE HOME-SEEKER. 

COME TO THE GREAT WEST! 

rilHE Western States and Territories afford unexampled in- 
-■- ducements to the surplus energy and capital of the East 
and Europe; and the field which they spread out so invitingly 
to the emigrant's choice is as wide as it is magnificent. 
Hundreds of millions of acres of rich land — embracing bottom 
and prairie, timber and running water — are open for settle- 
ment. Counties are to be populated, and towns built, all over 
the new States and Territories. Each of these latter is an 
empire in itself. Great Britain could be set down within the 
borders of any one of them, and yet leave room for some of 
the German principalities. The records of the Agricultural 
Bureau at Washington show that, wherever the new soil has 
been cultivated, both the yield per acre and the quality of the 
crops produced are better than in the older States. The 
balance of power is moving westward, and the capital of the 
nation, it can scarcely be doubted, must eventually come also. 

(435). 



436 BUFFALO LAND. 

There is no reason why people should starve in the great 
cities of this broad and heaven-favored land of ours. Busi- 
ness men, so often besieged and worried with applications for 
positions in their stores and counting-rooms, might with ad- 
vantage tack up a copy of the Homestead Law by their desk, 
and keep a further supply on hand for distribution. Every 
few months some poet sings of the ill-paid seamstress in the 
crowded town, or some hideous murder brings to light the 
heroine of the garret-stitched shirt. Yet, meanwhile, at Den- 
ver City, house-girls have been getting from six to ten dollars 
per week, and thousands could find comfortable homes through- 
out Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado, with remunerative wages. 
Abroad, men toil, and women work in the fields, and in one 
year pay out from the scanty earnings which they wring from 
a stingy soil more than enough to purchase one hundred and 
sixty acres of good land in the great and growing West. 

SHOULD THERE NOT BE COMPULSOEY EMIGRATION? 

Except in the case of the very decrepit, or totally disabled, 
there can be no excuse for begging, in a country which offers 
every pauper a quarter-section of as rich land as the sun shines 
upon. I suppose the millennium will commence when laws 
compel the cities to drive from them the idle and vicious, and 
make them tillers of the soil in the wilds. Instead of brood- 
ing in the dark alleys, and breeding vice to be flung out at 
regular intervals upon the civilized thoroughfares, these ger- 
minators of disease and crime would be dragged forth from 
their purlieus and hiding-places, and disinfected in the pure 
atmosphere of the large prairies and grand forests. Granting 
that it might be a heavy burden upon their shoulders at the 



"get a good ready." 437 

outset, the present generation of reformers would have the 
satisfaction of knowing that the sores were cleansed, and that 
moral and physical disease was not being propagated to suf- 
focate their children ; and even although some of the present 
multitude of evil-doers might not be reclaimed, most of their 
children certainly would be. It is more profitable to raise 
farmers than convicts. Instead of building jails to hold men 
in life-long mildew, our artisans might be building steamers 
and cars, to carry their products to the seaboard. 

"GET A GOOD EEADY." 

Of the immense and almost boundless tracts of Western 
land that invite the emigrant's choice, the larger part can be 
homesteaded and pre-empted, and the remainder purchased on 
favorable terms from the different railroads. The competition 
among the latter for immigration has induced low prices and 
superior facilities for examination. 

Where a number of families are coming together, the best 
way, as a rule, is to select commissioners from the number, to 
go in advance, and spy out the land, which can be done at 
comparatively trifling expense. On giving satisfactory proof 
of their mission, such representatives are nearly always able to 
secure low rates of fare and freight. In this way, two or three 
reliable agents can select a district in which a colony may set- 
tle, and make all the necessary arrangements for its transpor- 
tation, and each family save a number of dollars, which will 
give back compound interest in the new home. 

" Get a good ready " before starting, and have your route 
plainly mapped out; otherwise, you will buy experience at the 
sacrifice of many a useful dollar. And pray that your flight 



438 BUFFALO LAND. 

be not in the winter. Come at such season as will enable you 
to provide at least some shelter and supplies before the in- 
clement months come on. 

Furniture and provisions can be purchased at very reason- 
able rates at the West, and no necessity exists, therefore, for 
bringing one or two car loads of broken chairs, and partially 
filled flour barrels. Good stock will repay transportation, but 
common breeds are abundant and cheap on the ground. Texas 
yearlings can be purchased for about six dollars per head in 
Kansas. 

HOMESTEAD LAWS AND KEGULATIONS. 

The following is an epitome, by a former Register of a Uni- 
ted States Land Office, of such laws and regulations as pertain 
to the securing of Government land : 

The Pre-emption Act of September 4, 1841, provides, that 
"every person, being the head of the family, or widow, or single 
man over the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of 
the United States, or having filed a declaration of intention to 
become a citizen, as required by the naturalization laws," is 
authorized to enter at the Land Office one hundred and sixty 
acres of unappropriated Government land by complying with 
the requirements of said act. 

It has been decided that an unmarried or single woman over 
the age of twenty-one years, not the head of the family, but 
able to meet all the requirements of the pre-emption law, has 
the right to claim its benefits. 

Where the tract is "offered," the party must file his de- 
claratory statements within thirty days from the date of his 
settlement, and within one year from the date of said settle- 



HOMESTEAD LAWS AND EEGULATIONS. 439 

ment, must appear before the Register and Receiver, and 
make proof of his actual residence and cultivation of the tract, 
and pay for the same with cash or Military Land Warrants. 
When the tract has been surveyed but not offered at public 
sale, the claimant must file within three months from the date 
of settlement, and make proof and payment before the day de- 
signated in the President's Proclamation offering the land at 
public sale. 

Should the settler, in either of the above class of cases, die 
before establishing his claim within the period limited by law, 
the title may be perfected by the executor or administrator, 
by making the requisite proof of settlement and cultivation, 
and paying the Government price; the entry to be made in the 
name of " the heirs " of the deceased settler. 

When a person has filed his declaratory statements for one 
tract of land, it is not lawful for the same individual to file a 
second declaratory statement for another tract of land, unless 
the first filing was invalid in consequence of the land applied 
for, not being open to pre-emption, or by determination of the 
land against him, in case of contest, or from any other simi- 
lar cause which would have prevented him from consummating 
a pre-emption under his declaratory statements. 

Each qualified pre-empter is permitted to enter one hundred 
and sixty acres of either minimum or double minimum lands, 
subject to pre-emption, by paying the Government price, $1.25 
per acre for the former class of lands, and $2.50 for the latter 
class. 

Where a person has filed his declaratory statement for land 
which at the time was rated at $2.50 per acre, and the price 
has subsequently been reduced to $1.25 per acre, before he 
proves up and makes payment, he will be allowed to enter the 



440 BUFFALO LAND. 

land embraced in his declaratory statement at the last-named 
price, viz.: $1.25 per acre. 

Final proof and payment can not be made until the party 
has actually resided upon the land for a period of at least six 
months, and made the necessary cultivation and improvements 
to show his good faith as an actual settler. This proof can be 
made by one witness. 

The party who makes the first settlement in person upon a 
tract of public land is entitled to the right of pre-emption, 
provided he subsequently complies with all the requirements of 
the law — his right to the land commences from the date he 
performed the first work on the land. 

When a person has filed his declaratory statement for a tract 
of land, and afterward relinquishes it to the Government, he 
forfeits his right to fiile again for another tract of land. 

The assignment of a pre-emption right is null and void. 
Title to public land is not perfected until the issuance of the 
patent from the General Land Office, and all sales and transfers 
prior to the date of the patents are in violation of law. 

The Act of March 27, 1854, protects the right of settlers on 
sections along the lines of railroads, when settlement was made 
prior to the withdrawal of the lands, and in such case allows 
the lauds to be pre-empted and paid for at $1.25 per acre, by 
furnishing proof of inhabitancy and cultivation, as required 
under the Act of September 4, 1841. 

The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, provides "that any 
person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the 
age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, 
or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become 
such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United 
States, and who has never borne arms against the United 



HOMESTEAD LAWS AND REGULATIONS. 441 

States Government, or given aid or comfort to its enemies, shall 
be entitled to enter one quarter section or less quantity of un- 
appropriated public land." 

Under this act, one hundred and sixty acres of land subject 
to pre-emption at $1.25 per acre, or eighty acres at $2.50 per 
acre, can be entered upon application, by making affidavit 
"that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one years 
of age, or shall have performed service in the army and navy 
of the United States, and that such application is made for his 
or her exclusive use or benefit, and that said entry is made for 
the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not, either 
directly or indirectly, for the use and benefit of any other per- 
son or persons whomsoever." On filing said affidavit, and pay- 
ment of fees and commissions, the entry will be permitted. 

Soldiers and sailors who have served ninety days can, how- 
ever, take one hundred and sixty acres of the $2.50, or double 
minimum lands. In all other respects they are subject to the 
usual Homestead laws and regulations. 

No certificate will be given, or patent issued, until the ex- 
piration of five years from the date of said entry; and if, 
at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two 
years thereafter, the person making such entry — or if he be 
dead, his widow ; or in case of her death, his heirs or devisee ; 
or in case of a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, 
in case of her death — shall prove by two credible witnesses 
that he or she has resided upon and cultivated the same for 
the term of five years immediately succeeding the date of filing 
the above affidavit, and shall make affidavit that no part of 
said land has been alienated, and that he has borne true al- 
legiance to the Government of the United States; then he or 
she, if at that time a citizen of the United States, shall be en- 



442 BUFFALO LAND. 

titled to a patent. In case of the death of both father and 
mother, leaving an infant child or children under twenty-one 
years of age, the right and fee shall inure to the benefit of said 
infant or children ; and the executor, administrator, or guardian 
may, at any time after the death of the surviving parent, and in 
accordance with the law of the State in which such children for 
the time being have their domicil, sell said land for the benefit 
of said infants, but for no other purpose ; and the purchaser 
shall acquire the absolute title from the Government and be 
entitled to a patent. 

When a homestead settler has failed to commence his resi- 
dence upon land so as to enable him to make a continuous resi- 
dence of five years within the time (seven years) limited by 
law, he will be permitted, upon filing an affidavit showing a 
sufficient reason for his neglect to date his residence at the time 
he commenced such inhabitancy, and will be required to live 
upon the land for five years from said date, provided no 
adverse claim has attached to said land, and the affidavit of 
a settler is supported by the testimony of disinterested wit- 
nesses. 

In the second section of the act of May 20, 1862, it is stipu- 
lated in regard to settlers, that in the case of the death of both 
father and mother, leaving an infant child, or children, under 
twenty-one years of age, the right and fee shall inure to the 
benefit of the infant child or children ; and that the executor, 
administrator, or guardian, may sell the land for the benefit of 
the infant heirs, at any time within two years after the death 
of the surviving parent, in accordance with the law of the 
State. The Commissioner rules that instead of selling, the land 
as above provided, their heirs may, if they so select, continue 
residence and cultivation on the land for the period required 



HOMESTEAD LAWS AND REGULATIONS. 443 

by law, and at the expiration of the time proviiled, a patent 
will be issued in their names. 

In the case of the death of a homestead settler who leaves a 
widow and children, should the widow again marry and con- 
tinue her residence and cultivation upon the land entered in 
the name of her first husband for the period required by law, 
she will be permitted to make final proof as the widow of the 
deceased settler, and the patent will be issued in the name of 
** his heirs." 

When a widow, or single woman, has made a homestead 
entry, and thereafter marries a person who has also made a 
similar entry on a tract, it is ruled that the parties may select 
which tract they will retain for permanent residence, and will 
be allowed to enter the remaining tract under the eighth section 
of the act of May 20, 1862, on proof of inhabitance and culti- 
vation up to date of marriage. 

In the case of the death of a homestead settler, his heirs will 
be allowed to enter the land under the eighth section of the 
Homestead Act, by making proof of inhabitancy and culti- 
vation in the same manner as provided by the second section 
of the act of March 3, 1853, in regard to deceased pre- 
emptors. 

When at the date of application the land is $2.50 per acre, 
and the settler is limited to an entry of eighty acres, should the 
price subsequently be reduced to $1.25 per acre, the settler will 
not be allowed to take additional land to make up the de- 
ficiency. 

The sale of a homestead claim by the settler to another is 
not recognized, and vests no titles or equities in the purchaser, 
and would be prima facie evidence of abandonment, and suffi- 
cient cause for cancellation of the entry. 



444 BUFFALO LAND. 

The law allows but one homestead privilege. A settler who 
relinquished or abandoned his claim can not hereafter make a 
second entry. 

When a party has made a settlement on a surveyed tract of 
land, and filed his pre-emption declaration thereof, he may 
change his filing into a homestead. 

If a homestead settler does not wish lo remain five years on 
his tract, the law permits him to pay for it with cash or mili- 
tary warrants, upon making proof of residence and cultivation 
as required in pre-emption cases. The proof is made by the 
affidavit of the party and the testimony of two credible wit- 
nesses. 

There is another class of homesteads, designated as " Ad- 
joining Farm Homesteads." In these cases, the law allows an 
applicant owning and residing on an original farm, to enter 
other land contiguous thereto, which shall not, with such farm, 
exceed in the aggregate 160 acres. For example, a party own- 
ing or occupying 80 acres, may enter 80 additional of $1.25, or 
40 acres of $2.50 land. Or, if the applicant owns 40 acres, he 
may enter 120 at $1.25, or 60 at $2.50 per acre, if both 
classes of land should be found contiguous to his original 
farm. In entries of " Adjoining Farms," the settler must de- 
scribe in his affidavit the tract he owns and lives upon, as his 
original farm. Actual residence on the tract entered as an 
"adjoining farm" is not required, but bona fide improvement 
and cultivation of it must be shown for five years. 

The right to a tract of land under the Homestead Act, com- 
mences from the date of entry in the Land Office, and not from 
date of personal settlement, as in case of the pre-emption. 

When a party makes an entry under the Homestead Act, and 
thereafter, before the expiration of five years, makes satis- 



HOMESTEAD LAWS AND KEGULATIONS. 445 

factory proof of habitancy and cultivation, and pays for the 
tract under the 8th section of said act, it is held to be a con- 
summation of his homestead right as the act allows, and not a 
pre-emption, and will be no bar to the same party acquiring a 
pre-emption right, provided he can legally show his riglit in 
virtue of actual settlement and cultivation on another tract, at 
a period subsequent to his proof and payment under the 8th 
section of the Homestead Act. 

The 2d section of the act of May 20, 1862, declares that 
after making proof of settlement, cultivation, etc., " then, if 
the party is at that time a citizen of the United States, he shall 
be entitled to a patent." This, then, requires that all settlers 
shall be "citizens of the United States" at the time of 
making final proof, and they must file in the Land Office the 
proper evidence of that fact before a final certificate will be 
issued. 

A party who has proved up and paid for a tract of land 
under the Pre-emption Act, can subsequently enter another tract 
of land under the Homestead Act. Or, a party who has con- 
summated his right to a tract of land under the Homestead 
Act will afterward be permitted to pre-empt another tract. 

A settler who desires to " relinquish his homestead must 
surrender his duplicate receipt, his relinquishment to the 
United States " being endorsed thereon ; if he has lost his 
receipt, that fact must be stated in his relinquishment, to be 
signed by the settler, attested by two witnesses, and acknowl- 
edged before the register or receiver, or clerk or notary public 
using a seal. 

"When a homestead entry is contested and application is 
made for cancellation, the party so applying must file an affi- 
davit setting forth the facts on which his allegations are 



446 BUFFALO LAND. 

grounded, describing the tract and giving the name of the 
settler. A day will then be set for hearing the evidence, giv- 
ing all parties due notice of the time and place of trial. It 
requires the testimony of two witnesses to establish the aban- 
donment of a homestead entry. 

The notice to a settler that his claim is contested must be 
served by a disinterested party, and in all cases when prac- 
ticable, personal service must be made upon the settler. 

Another entry of the land will not be made in case of re- 
linquishment or contest, until the cancellation is ordered by 
the Commissioner of the General Land Office. 

When a party has made a mistake in the description of the 
land he desires to enter as a homestead, and desires to amend 
his application, he will be permitted to do so upon furnishing 
the testimony of two witnesses to the facts, and proving that 
he has made no improvements on the land described in his ap- 
plication, but has made valuable improvements on the land he 
first intended and now applies to enter. 

It is important to settlers to bear in mind that it requires 
two witnesses to make final proof under the Homestead Act, 
who can testify that the settler has resided upon and cultivated 
the tract for five years from the date of his entry. 

Patents are not issued for lands until from one to two years 
after date of location in the District Office. No patent will 
be delivered until the surrender of the duplicate receipt, un- 
less such receipt should be lost, in which case an affidavit of 
the fact must be filed in the Register's Office, showing how 
said loss occurred, also that said certificate has never been as- 
signed, and that the holder is the bona fide owner of the land, 
and entitled to said patent. 

By a careful examination of the foregoing requirements, 



THE STATE OF KANSAS. 447 

settlers will be enabled to learn without a visit to the Land 
Office the manner in which thev can secure and perfect title to 
public lands under the Pre-emption Act of September o, 1841, 
and Homestead Act of ^laj 20, 1862. 

THE STATE OF KANSAS. 

Our sojourn on the plains impressed our party with a strong 
belief that Kansas, at no distant day, will be one of the richest 
garden spots on the continent. I have more particularly de- 
scribed the central portion of the State, but both Northern and 
Southern Kansas are equally as fertile and desirable. 

The United States Land Offices in Kansas are located at the 
following places : Topeka, Humboldt, Augusta, Salina, and 
Concordia. The rapidity with which Kansas is being settled 
may readily be inferred from the fact that 2,000,000 acres of 
its land were sold during one year, 1870. 

In our note-book, I find the outline of a speech delivered 
by the Professor in Topeka, aud I quote a single paragraph 
as fitly expressing the common sentiment of our entire 
number : 

" Gentlemen, great as your State now is in extent of terri- 
tory and natural resources, she will soon have a corresponding 
greatness in the means of development, and in a self-support- 
ing population. 1870 holds in her lap and fondles the in- 
fant; 1880 will shake hands vrith the giant. The whole sur- 
face of your land, gentlemen, is one wild sea of beauty, ready 
to toss into the lap of every venturer upon it, a farm. The 
genius which rewards honest industn.' stands on the threshold 
of your State, with countless herds and golden sheaves, 
smiling ready welcome to all new-comers, of whatever creed or 
clime." 



448 BUFFALO LAND. 



WHAT A FARM WILT. COST. 

The emigrant has already been told what it will cost him to 
obtain government land. . If this adjoins railroad tracts, he 
can secure what is desired of the latter at from two to ten 
dollars per acre. 

The expense of fencing material might be fairly estimated 
at from twenty to thirty dollars per thousand feet for boards, 
and ten to fifteen dollars per hundred for posts. This is sup- 
posing that all the material is purchased. If fortunate enough 
to have timber on his claim, the emigrant, of course, can 
inclose the farm at the cost of his own labor. 

I have seen many new-comers protect their fields by simply 
digging around them a narrow, deep trench, and throwing the 
earth on the inside line so as to raise au embankment along 
that side two feet in height. One single wire stretched along 
this, and secured at proper intervals by small stakes, appears 
to answer quite well as a cattle guard. 

Osage orange grows rapidly, and is cheap, and a permanent 
fence can be made with it, at small expense, in the course of 
three or four years. 

The usual cost of breaking prairie is from two to four dol- 
lars per acre. With a yoke or two of good oxen, however, 
this item can also be saved. 

The second year the farmer can set out with safety his trees 
and vines, and the third or fourth year he may be considered 
fairly on the road to prosperity. 

Laborers' wages are from twenty to thirty dollars per 
month and board. 



I 

A FEW MORE PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 449 

I estimate that a fair statement of the prices for stock would 
be about as follows : "Work oxen, seventy-five to one hundred 
dollars per yoke; cows, twenty to fifty dollars each; horses, 
seventy-five to one hundred and fifty dollars. 

A FEW MOEE PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 

I would say to the emigrant, Do not be influenced to select 
any one particular State or locality until you have more au- 
thority for the step than a single publication. Examine care- 
fully, make up your mind deliberately, and then move with 
determination. It will require no very great exertion to se- 
cure a half dozen glowing advertisements from as many new 
Western States and Territories. It will need but little more 
effort to obtain from five to fifty "rosy" circulars from as 
many different districts in each of the separate " garden spots." 
After examining these until ready to sing, — 

"How happy could I be with either 
Were t' other dear charmer away," 

take down your map, and let the railroads and streams assist 
your choice. You have then secured yourself against one 
danger of the journey — that of having these same circulars 
flung into your lap en route, and being diverted by them into 
dubious ways and needless expenditures. But be careful, 
reader, that you select not as accurate beyond the possibility 
of a mistake the maps accompanying the circulars ; otherwise, 
you may find yourself unable to choose between several thou- 
sand railroad centers from which broad gauges radiate like 

25 



450 BUFFALO LAND. 

the spokes in a wheel, and your ignorance of modern geog- 
raphy may be brought painfully home by discovering navi- 
gable rivers where you had supposed only creeks existed. In 
these matters, as in every thing else connected with your 
" new departure," consult all the various sources of informa- 
tion within your reach. 



i^PPEl^TDIX:. 



CHAPTER SECOND. 



FURTHER INFORMATION FOR THE SPORTSMAN. 



APPEISTDIX. 



CONTENTS OF CHAPTER SECOND. 

PAGE 

Hunting the Buffalo, 453 

Antelope Hunting, . . , . 458 

Elk Hunting, 459 

Turkey Hunting, 459 

General Remarks, 460 

What to Do if Lost on the Plains, 461 

The New Field for Sportsmen, 462 



CHAPTER SECOJN'D. 

FURTHER INFORMATION FOR THE SPORTSMAN. 

HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 

rilHE first matter to be doterrainocl, in planning any sport- 
-*- ing trip, is the best point at which to seek for game. 
]f the object of pursuit be buffalo, I should say, Deposit your- 
self as soon as possible on the plains of "Western Kansas.* 
Take the Kansas Pacific Railway at the State line, and you can 
readily find out from the conductoi's at what point the buffalo 
chance then to be most numerous. There are a dozen stations 
after passing Ellsworth equally good. One month, the bison 
may be numerous along the eastern portion of the plains; a 
month later, the herds will be found perhaps sixty or eighty 
miles further west. As one has at least a day's ride, after en- 
tering Kansas, before penetrating into the solitude of Buffalo 
Land, there is ample time to decide upon a stopping place. 
Russell as an eastern, and Buffalo Station as a western point, 
will be found good basis for operations. In the former, some 
hotel accommodations exist; in the latter, there are several 
dug-outs, and hunters who can be obtained for guides. 

Those who can spend a week or more on the grounds, and 

•wish to enjoy the sport in its only legitimate way, namely, 

* During the present year, the A. T. & Santa Fe R. R. will probably be 

finished to the big bend of the Arkansas, which will place the sportsman in 

one of the finest game regions of the continent. 

(453) 



454 BUFFALO LAND. 

horseback hunting, should stop at the point where they may 
best procure mounts, even if it necessitate a journey in the 
saddle of twenty miles. Ellsworth, Russell, and Hays City 
are the places where such outfits may generally be obtained. 

For shooting bison, the hunter should come prepared with 
some other weapon than a squirrel rifle or double barreled 
shot gun. I have known several instances in which persons 
appeared on the ground armed with ancient smooth-bores or 
fowling-pieces ; and in one of these cases the object of attack, 
after receiving a bombardment of several minutes' duration, 
tossed the squirrel hunter and injured him severely. A breech- 
loading rifle, with a magazine holding several cartridges, is by 
far the best weapon. In my own experience I became very 
fond of a carbine combining the Henry and King patents. 
It weighed but seven and one-half pounds, and could be fired 
rapidly twelve times without replenishing the magazine. 
Hung by a strap to the shoulder, this weapon can be dropped 
across the saddle in front, and held there very firmly by a 
slight pressure of the body. The rider may then draw his 
holster revolvers in succession, and after using them, have left 
a carbine reserve for any emergency. Twenty-four shots can 
thus be exhausted before reloading, and, with a little practice, 
the magazine of the gun may be refilled without checking the 
horse. So light is this Henry and King weapon that I have 
often held it out with one hand like a pistol, and fired. 

When a herd of buffalo is discovered, the direction of the 
wind should be carefully ascertained. The taint of the hunter 
is detected at a long distance, and the bison accepts the evi- 
dence of his nose more readily than even that of his eyes. 
This delicacy of smell, however, is becoming either more 
blunted or less heeded than formerly, owing probably to the 



HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 455 

passage over the plains of the crowded passenger cars, which 
keep the air constantly impregnated for long distances. 

Having satisfied himself in regard to the Avind, the sports- 
man should take advantage of the ravines and slight depres- 
sions, which every-where abound on the plains, and approach 
as near the herd as possible. If mounted, let him gain every 
obtainable inch before making the charge. It is an egregious 
blunder to go dashing over the prairie for half a mile or so, 
in full view of the game, and thus give it the advantage of a 
long start. When this is done, unless your animal is a supe- 
rior one, he \\m11 be winded and left behind. 

In most cases, careful planning will place one within a 
couple of hundred yards of the ])ison. Be sure that every 
weapon is ready for the hand, and then charge. Put your 
horse to full speed as soon as practicable. Place him beside 
the buffalo, and he can easily keep there; whereas, if you 
nurse his pace at the first, and make it a stern chase, both 
your animal and yourself, should you have the rare luck of 
catching up at all, will be jaded completely before doing so. 
In shooting from the saddle, be very careful between shots, 
and keep the muzzle of the weapon in some other direction 
than your horse or your feet. A sudden jolt, or a nervous 
finger, often causes a premature discharge. In taking aim, 
draw your bead well forward on the buffalo — if possible, a 
little behind the fore-shoulder. The vital organs being situa- 
ted there, a ranging shot will hit some of them, on one side 
or the other. Back of the ribs, the buffalo will receive a 
dozen balls without being checked. A discharge of bullets 
into the hind-quarters, is worse than useless. 

While trying in the most enjoyable and practical manner 
to kill the game, it is very necessary to escape, if possible. 



456 BUFFALO LAND. 

any injury to yourself or horse. The Frenchman's remark 
on tiger hunting is very apropos. "Yen ze Frenchman hunt 
ze tiger, it fine sport ; but ven ze tiger hunt ze Frenchman, it 
is not so." Care should be taken to have the horse perfectly 
under contBol, when the bison stands at bay. Unless experi- 
enced in bull fighting, he does not appreciate the danger, and 
a sudden charge has often resulted in disembowelment. 
. Never dismount to approach the biiifalo, unless certain that 
he is crippled so as to prevent rising. One that is apparently 
wounded unto death will often get upon his feet nimbly, and 
prove an ugly customer. I knew a soldier killect at Hays City 
in this manner — thrown several feet into the air, and fearfully 
torn. Recently near Cayote Station, on the Kansas Pacific 
Railway, a buffalo was shot from the train, and the cars were 
stopped to secure the meat, and gratify the passengers. One 
of the latter, a stout Englishman, ran ahead of his fellows, 
and shook his fist in the face of the prostrate bison. The 
American bull did not brook such an insult from the English 
one, and Johnny received a terrible blow while attempting to 
escape. He was badly injured, and, when I saw him some time 
afterward, could only move on crutches. 

Should the hunter on foot ever have to stand a charge, let 
him fire at what is visible of the back, above the lowered head, 
or, should he be able to catch a glimpse of the fore-shoulder, 
let him direct his bullet there. The bone seems to be broken 
readily by a ball. Against the frontal bone of the bison's 
skull, the lead falls harmless. To test this fully, with Califor- 
nia Bill as a companion, I once approached a buifalo which 
stood wounded in a ravine. We took position upon the hill- 
side, knowing that he could not readily charge up it, at a dis- 
tance of only fifteen yards. I fired three shots from the 



HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 457 

Henry weapon full against the forehead, causing no other re- 
sult than some angry head-shaking. I then took Bill's 
8pencer carbine, and fired twice with it. At each shot the 
bull sank partly to his knees, but immediately recovered again. 
I afterward examined the skull, and could detect no fracture. 

A person dismounted by accident or imprudence, and 
charged upon, can avoid the blow by waiting until the horns 
are within a few feet of him, and then jumping quickly on one 
side. After the buffalo has passed, let the brief period of time 
before he has checked his rush, be employed in traversing as 
much prairie, on the back track, as possible, and the chances 
are that no pursuit will be made. Should a foot trip, or a fall 
from the horse give no time for such tactics, then let the 
iiunter hug Mother Earth as tight as may be. The probabili- 
ties are that the bull can not pick the body up with his horns. 
I have known a hunter to escape by throwing himself in the 
slight hollow of a trail, and thus baffling all attempts to hook 
him. 

Accidents are rare in bison hunting, however, and the 
reader should not be deterred from noble sport by the mere 
possibility of mishaps. I have given the above advice, feeling 
that I shall be well repaid if it saves the life or limbs of one 
man out of the thousands who may be exposed. A glimpse 
of surgeon's instruments should not make the soldier a coward. 
Comparatively few people are killed by electricity, and yet 
lightning-rods are very popular. 

The hunter who has no love for the saddle, and prefers 
stalking, should provide himself with some breech-loading 
rifle or carbine, carrying a heavy ball — the heavier the better. 
The most effective weapon is the needle-gun used in the army, 
having a bore the size of the old Springfield musket, and a 



458 BUFFALO LAND. 

ball to correspond. A bullet from this weapon usually proves 
fatal. But there is little genuine sport in such practice. 
Stalking holds the same relation to horseback hunting that 
" hand line " fishing does to that with the rod and reel, the fly 
and the spoon, or that killing birds on the ground does to 
M'ing-shooting. 

In selecting from the herd a single individual for attack, the 
hunter should do so with some reference to the intended use of 
the game. For furnishing trophies of the chase, such as 
horns and robe, the bull will do well ; but if the meat is for 
use, it will be advisable to sacrifice some sport, and obtain a 
cow or calf. I have known many an ancient bison, with 
scarcely enough meat on his bones to hold the bullets, killed 
by amateurs, and the leather-like quarters shipped to eastern 
friends as rare delicacies ! 



ANTELOPE HUNTING. 

Antelope hunting is a sport requiring more strategy and 
caution than the one we have described. The creature is 
timid and swift, and inclined to feed on ridges or level lands, 
where stalking is difficult. Its eyes and ears are wonderfully 
quick in detecting danger, and the animal at once seeks points 
which command the surroundings. If unable to keep in view 
the object of alarm, immediate flight results. 

The modes of hunting this game are two. If no possibility 
of stalking exists, a red flag may be attached to a small stick, 
and planted in front of the ravine or other place of conceal- 
ment. The antelope at once becomes curious, and begins cir- 
cling toward it, each moment approaching a little nearer, until 
finally within shooting distance. The other method is by care- 



ELK AXD TURKEY HUNTING. 459 

ful stalking. If the animal is on a high ridge, the sides of 
which round upward a little, the hunter may crawl on his 
hands and knees until he sees, just visible above the grass, the 
tips of the horns or ears. Then let him rise on one knee, with 
gun to shoulder, and take quick aim well forward, as the body 
comes into view. The approach can not be too cautious, as 
the antelope stops feeding every minute or so, to lift its head 
high, and gaze around. Thus the incautious hunter may be 
brought, on the instant, into full relief, and the quick bound 
which follows discovery, rob him of the fruit of long crawling. 
Kare enjoyment might be obtained by any one who would 
take with him, to the plains, a good greyhound. Mounted on 
a reliable horse, the sportsman could follow the dog in its pur- 
suit of antelope, and be in at the death. 

ELK HUNTING. 

Elk must be hunted by stalking, as he speedily distances any 
horse. The animal is found in abundance along the upper 
waters of the Republican, Solomon, and Saline. I prefer its 
meat to that of either the buffalo or antelope. The horns of a 
fine male form a pleasing trophy to look at, when the hunter's 
joints have been stiffened by rheumatism or age. 

TURKEY HUNTING. 
Wild turkeys exist in great numbers along the creeks, 
over the whole western half of Kansas, and, where they have 
never been hunted, are so tame as to afford but little sport. 
Cunning is their natural instinct, however, and at once comes 
to the rescue, when needed. After a few have been shot, the 
remainder will leave the narrow skirt of creek timber instantly, 



460 BUFFALO LAND. 

and escape among the ravines by fast running, defying any pur- 
suit except in the saddle. Even then if they can get out of 
sight for a moment, they will often escape. While the rider is 
pressing forward in the direction a tired turkey was last seen, 
the bird will hide and let him pass ; or, turning the instant it 
is hidden by the brow of the ravine, it will take a backward 
course, passing, if necessary, close to the horse. As another il- 
lustration of the wily habits of the turkey, let the hunter select 
a creek along which there has been no previous shooting done, 
and kill turkeys at early morning on roosts, and the next 
night the gangs will remain out among the " breaks." 

For this shooting, a shot-gun is, of course, the best, although 
I have had fine sport among the birds with the rifle. When 
using shot at one on the wing, the hunter must not conclude 
his aim was bad, if no immediate effect is observed. The fly- 
ing turkey will not shrink, as the prairie-chicken does, when 
receiving and carrying off lead. I have frequently heard shot 
rattle upon a gobbler's stout feathers without any apparent ef- 
fect, and found him afterward, fluttering helpless, a mile away. 

GENERAL EEMAEKS. 

The western field open to sportsmen is a grand one. Kan- 
sas, Colorado, Nebraska, Dakotah, and Wyoming, are all over- 
flowing with game. The climate of each is very healthy, and 
especially favorable for those affected with pulmonary com- 
plaints. A year or two passed in their pure air, with the ex- 
citement of exploration or adventure superadded, would put 
more fresh blood into feeble bodies than all the watering-places 
in existence. Let the dyspeptic seek his hunting camp at even- 
ing, and, my word for it, he will find the sweet savor of his 



GENEKAL REMAKKS. 461 

boyhood's appetite resting over all the dishes. After the meal, 
with his feet to the fire, he can have diversion in the way of 
either comedy or tragedy, or both, by listening to frontier tales. 
When bed-time comes, he will barely have time to roll under 
the blankets, before sweet sleep closes his eyes, and the 
twinkling stars look down upon a being over whom the angel 
of health is again hovering. 

'No extensive preparation for a western sporting trip is 
needed, as an outfit can be obtained at any of the larger towns, 
in either Kansas, Nebraska, or Colorado. 

Of the three districts just named, I decidedly prefer the 
former for the pursuit of such game as I have endeavored to 
describe in Buffalo Land. The eastern half of Kansas 
furnishes chicken and quail shooting. The birds have in- 
creased rapidly during late years, and at any point fifty miles 
west of the eastern line, the sportsman will find plenty of 
work for a dog and gun. The ground lies well for good shoot- 
ing, being a gently rolling prairie, with plenty of watering- 
places. The cover is excellent, and with a good dog there is 
little trouble, between August and November, in flushing the 
chickens singly, and getting an excellent record out of any 
covey. 

Wild fowl shooting is poor, there being no lakes or feeding- 
grounds. The best sport of that kind I ever had was in Wis- 
consin and Minnesota. 



WHAT TO DO, IF LOST ON THE PLAINS. 

There have been several instances in which gentlemen, led 
away from their party in the excitement of the chase, when 
wishing to return, suddenly found themselves lost. Judge 



462 BUFFALO LAND. 

• 

Corwin, of Urbana, Ohio, separated in this manner from his 
party, wandered for two days on the plains south of Hays 
City, subsisting on a little corn which had been dropped by 
some passing wagon. He was found, utterly exhausted, by 
California Bill, just as a severe snow-storm had set in. Per- 
sons thus lost should remember that buffalo trails run north 
and south, and the Pacific Railroads east and west. It will be 
easy to call to mind on which side it was that the party left 
the road in starting out, and it then becomes a simple matter to 
regain the rails, and follow them to the first station. 



THE NEW FIELD FOE SPOETSMEN. 

South of Kansas is the Indian Territory, which probably 
has within it a larger amount of game than any spot of similar 
size on our continent. It fairly swarms with wild beasts and 
birds. At sunset one may see hundreds of turkeys gathering 
to their roosts. Buffalo, elk, antelope, and deer of several 
varieties, may be found and hunted to the heart's content. 
AVithin the next two years this territory will be the paradise of 
all sportsmen. It can now be reached by wagoning fifty miles 
or so beyond the terminus of the A. T. & Santa Fe Railroad. 
But the savage, hostile and treacherous, stands at the entrance 
of this fair land and forbids further advance. While there is 
good hunting, there is also a disagreeable probability of being 
hunted. Many of the tribes which formerly roamed all over 
the plains are now gathered in the Indian Territory. Jealous 
of their rights, they are apt to repay intrusion upon them with 
death. 

The white kills for sport alone the game which is the 
entire support of the savage. I have often stood among the 



THE NEW FIELD FOR SPORTSMEN. 463 

rotting carcasses of hundreds of buffaloes, and seen the beauti- 
ful skins decaying, and tons of richest meat feeding flies and 
maggots ; and, standing there, I have felt but little surprise 
that the savage should consider such wanton destruction worthy 
of death. In the States, game is protected at least during the 
breeding season ; but no period of the year is sacred from the 
spirit of slaughter which holds high revel in Buffalo Land. 

It is manifest, however, that over the Indian Territory 
history will soon repeat itself. Railroads are pushing steadily 
forward; 1872 is already seeing the beginning of the end. 
The savage must flee still further westward, and the valleys 
and prairies which he is now jealously protecting will be 
invaded first by the sportsman, and then by the farmer. 
Perhaps, before that time. Congress may have taken the 
matter in hand, and passed laws which will have saved the 
noblest of our game from at least immediate extinction. 



A.PFENDIX. 



CHAPTER THIRD. 

ADDITIONAL FACTS CONCERNING THE NATURAL FEAT- 
URES, RESOURCES, ETC., OF THE GREAT PLAINS 
AND CONTIGUOUS TERRITORY. 



26 



APPETsTDIX. 



CONTENTS OF CHAPTER THIRD. 

PAGE 

"Br THE Mouth op Two or Three "Witnesses," 467 

The Great West, 469 

Fall op the Rivers, 470 

The Principal Rivers and Valleys of Buffalo Land, . . 470 

The Valley of the Platte, ......... 470 

The Solomon and Smoky Hill Rivers, 471 

The Arkansas River and its Tributaries, 472 

Stock Raising in the Great West, 474 

The Cattle Hive of North America, . . . . - . . . 477 

The Climate of the Plains, 479 

Climatic Changes on the Plains, . . . ' 482 

The Trees and Future Forests of the Plains, 484 

The Supply of Fuel, 486 

Districts Contiguous to the Plains, 487 

The Valleys op the White Earth and Niobrara, .... 492 

New Mexico — Its Soil, Climate, Resources, etc., 494 

The Disappearing Bison, 500 

The Fish with Legs, 601 

The Mountain Supply op Lumber for the Plains, .... 502 



CHAPTER III. 

ADDITIONAL FACTS CONCERNING THE NATURAL 
FEATURES OF THE GREAT PLAINS; THEIR 
PRINCIPAL RIVERS AND VALLEYS; THEIR CLI- 
MATE, ETC., ETC. 

" BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES." 

XN my endeavors to place Buffalo Land before the public in 
-*- its true liglit, I have felt a desire, as earnest as it is natu- 
ral, that my readers should feel that the subject has been 
justly treated. The opinions of any one individual are li- 
able to be formed too hastily, and the country which before 
one traveler stretches away bright and beautiful, may appear 
full of gloomy features to another, who views it under differ- 
ent circumstances. A late dinner and a sour stomach, before 
now, have had more to do with an unfavorable opinion con- 
cerning a new town or country than any actual demerits. 
No two pairs of spectacles have precisely the same power, and 
defects ofttimes exist in the glass, rather than the vision. 

These considerations have been brought to my mind with 
especial force when, after giving an account of our own ex- 
pedition, I have searched through the records of others. A 
portion of the descriptions which I have been able to find are 
the mature productions of travelers who. nerched upon the top 



(467) 



468 BUFFALO LAND. 

of a stage-coach, or snugly nestled inside, have undertaken to 
write a history of the country while rattling through it at 
the best rate of sj^eed ever attained by the " Overland Mail." 
What the writers of this class lack in proper acquaintance 
with their subject they usually make up by an air of pro- 
foundness, and positiveness in expression, and the result has 
more than once been the foisting upon the public of a species 
of exaggeration and absurdity which Baron Munchausen him- 
self could scarcely excel. 

As a rather curious illustration of the numerous absurdities 
which have obtained currency concerning the plains, may be 
mentioned the statement published more than once during the 
winter of 1871-2, to the eifect that the snow of that region 
is different in character from that which falls elsewhere. In 
support of this assumption, the fact is adduced that snow- 
plows sometimes have but little effect upon it, on account of 
its peculiar hardness, being pushed upon it, instead of through 
it. A little more careful examination, however, would have 
discovered that the snow itself is essentially similar to that 
which descends elsewhere, but that the wind which drives it 
into the " cuts " and ravines also carries with it a large 
amount of sand and surface dirt ; and this, packing with the 
snow, causes the firmness in question. 

The valuable surveys being made from time to time under 
the auspices of the Government, in charge of persons of ex- 
perience and sagacity, are doing much to replace this superfi- 
cial knowledge with a more correct comprehension of what 
the plains really are ; and, altogether, we may well hope that 
the time is not far distant when this whole wonderful region 
will be as well understood as any portion of the national do- 
main. 



THE GREAT WEST. 469 

As the object of this work is to place before its readers all 
the essential information now obtainable concerning the great 
plains, no apology will be necessary for adding some of the 
observations and opinions of other competent writers upon the 
same subject. By far the most valuable source which I have 
found to draw from in this connection, is the comprehensive 
re[)ort published by Government, and bearing tlve title of 
" United States Geological Survey of "Wyoming and Coutigu- 
ous Territory, 1870. Hay den." 

THE GREAT WEST. 

Prof. Thomas informs us, in his report (embodied in Hay- 
den's survey), that, lying east of the divide, " the broad belt of 
country situated between the 99th and 104th meridians, and 
reaching from the Big Horn Mountains on the north to the 
Llano Estacado on the south, contains one hundred and fifty 
thousand square miles. If but one-fifth of it could be brought 
under culture and made productive, this alone, when fully im- 
proved, would add $400,000,000 to the aggregate value of the 
lands of the nation. And, taking the lowest estimate of the 
cash value of the crops of 1869 per acre, it would give an ad- 
dition of more than $200,000,000 per annum to the aggregate 
value of our products." 

" One single view from a slightly elevated point often em- 
braces a territory equal to one of the smaller States, taking in 
at one sweep millions of acres. Eastern Colorado and Eastern 
Wyoming each contains as much land sufficiently level for 
cultivation as the entire cultivated area of Egypt." 



470 BUFFALO LAND. 

FALL OF THE EIVERS. 

The fall of the principal rivers traversing the region above 
named is about as follows : Arkansas, to the 99th meridian, 
eleven to fifteen feet to the mile ; the Canadian, the same ; the 
South Platte, from Denver to North Platte, ten feet to the 
mile ; the North Platte, to Fort Fetter man, seven feet to the 
mile. The descent of the country from Denver Junction to 
Fort Hays is nine f#et to the mile. Thus it will be seen that 
abundant fall is obtainable to irrigate all the lands adjacent. 

THE PRINCIPAL RIVERS AND VALLEYS OF BUFFALO LAND. 

The Platte (or Nebraska), the Solomon, the Smoky Hill, 
and the Arkansas, are the four largest rivers of Buffalo Land 
proper, and form natural avenues to the eastward from the 
mountains which shut it in upon the west. 

THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE. 

Describing this, Hay den says : " West of the mouth of the 
Elk Horn River, the valley of the Platte expands widely. 
The hills on either side are quite low, rounded, and clothed 
with a thick carpet of grass. But we shall look in vain for 
any large natural groves of forest trees, there being only a 
very narrow fringe of willows or cottonwoods along the little 
streams. The Elk Horn rises far to the north-west in the 
prairie near the Niobrara, and flows for a distance of nearly 
two hundred miles through some of the most fertile and 
beautiful lands in Nebraska. Each of its more important 



THE SOLOMON AXD SMOKY HILL RTVERS. 471 

branches, as ISIaplc, Pebble, and Logan Creeks, has carved out 
for itself broad, finely-rounded valleys, so that every acre may 
be brought under the highest state of cultivation. 

"The great need here will be timber for fuel and other eco- 
nomical purposes, and also rock material for building. Still 
the resources of this region are so vast that the enterprising 
settler will devise plans to remedy all these deficiencies. He 
will plant trees, and thus raise his own forests and improve his 
lands in accordance with his wants and necessities. 

"These valleys have always been the favorite places of abode 
for numerous tribes of Indians from time immemorial, and the 
sites of their old villages are still to be seen in many localities. 
The buffalo, deer, elk, antelope, and other kinds of M'ild game, 
swarmed here in the greatest numbers, and, as they recede 
farther to the westward into the more arid and barren plains 
beyond the reach of civilization, the wild nomadic Indian is 
obliged to follow. One may travel for days in this region and 
not find a stone large enough to toss at a bird, and very seldom 
a bush sufficient in size to furnish a cane." 



THE SOLOMON AND SMOKY HILL RIVERS. 

The Solomon and Smoky Hill Rivers, while possessing some 
of the general characteristics of the Platte, have more timber, 
and the entire surrounding country is uniformly rolling. The 
Smoky Hill is a visible stream only after reaching the 
vicinity of Pond Creek, near Fort Wallace. Above that point 
a desolate bed of sand hides the water flowing beneath. We 
have spoken fully of these sections elsewhere. 



472 BUFFALO LAND. 

THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 

The Arkansas, passing through the southern portion of the 
plains, has wide, rich bottoms, with a more sandy soil than is 
found on the streams north. Its small tributaries have con- 
siderable timber. All these valleys are being settled rapidly. 

Again consulting Prof. Thomas' report, we find that " the 
Arkansas River, rising a little north-west of South Park, runs 
south-east to Poncho Pass, where, turning a little more toward 
the east, it passes through a canyon for about forty miles, 
emerging upon the open country at Canyon City. From this 
point to the Eastern boundary of the Territory it runs almost 
directly east. 

" The mountain valley has an elevation of between seven 
and eight thousand feet above the sea, while that of the plain 
country lying east of the range varies from six thousand near 
the base of the mountains to about three thousand five hundred 
feet at the eastern boundary of the Territory. From Denver 
to Fort Hays, a distance of three hundred and forty-seven 
miles, the fall is three thousand two hundred and seven feet, or 
a little over nine feet to the mile. 

" The Arkansas River, from the mouth of the Apishpa to 
the mouth of the Pawnee, a distance of two hundred and six 
miles, has the remarkable fall of two thousand four hundred 
and eight feet, or more than eleven feet to the mile. 

" The headwaters of the Arkansas are in an oval park, 
situated directly west of the South Park. The altitude of this 
basin is probably between eight and nine thousand feet above 
the level of the sea ; the length is about fifty miles from north 
to south, and twenty or thirty miles in width at the middle or 
widest point. At the lower or southern end an attempt has 



THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 473 

been made to cultivate the soil, which bids fair to prove a suc- 
(668. Around the Twin Lakes, at the extreme point, oats, 
wheat, barley, potatoes, and turnips have been raised, yielding 
very fair crops. Below this basin the river, for twenty miles, 
passes through a narrow canyon, along which, with considerable 
difficulty, a road has been made. Emerging from this, it 
enters the ' Upper Arkansas Valley' proper, which is a widen- 
ing of the bottom lands from two to six or eight miles. This 
valley is some forty or fifty miles in length, and very fertile. 

" The principal tributaries of the Arkansas that flow in from 
the south, east of the mountains, are Hardscrabble and Green- 
horn Creeks (the St. Charles is a branch of the latter), Huer- 
bano River, which has a large tributary named Cuchara ; 
Apish pa River, Tim pas Creek, and Purgatory River. On the 
north side, Fountain Gui Bouille River and Squirrel Creek 
are the principal streams affording water. 

" This entire district affords broad and extensive grazing 
fields for cattle and sheep, and quite a number of herders and 
stock-raisers are beginning already to spread out their flocks 
and herds over these broad areas of rich and nutritious grasses. 
One of the finest meadows, of moderate extent, that I saw in 
the Territory, was on the divide near the head of Monument 
Creek, and near by was a large pond of cool, clear water. The 
temperature of this section is somewhat similar to that of 
Northern Missouri, and all the products grown there can be 
raised here, some with a heavier yield and of a finer quality, 
as wheat, oats, etc., while others, as corn, yield less, and are in- 
ferior in quality." 

As we descend the Arkansas, the valley becomes broader, 
and it is often difficult to tell where the bottom ceases and the 
prairie commences. 



474 BUFFALO LAND. 

This stream attracted such a large portion of the immigra- 
tion of 1871 that it is already settled upon for some distance 
above Fort Zarah. The soil is very rich, the climate pleasant 
and healthy, and good success attends both stock and crop- 
raising. 

STOCK-KAISING IN THE GEEAT WEST. 

Mr. W. N. Byers, who has lived for many years in 
Colorado, lately contributed the following valuable article to 
the RocJcy Mountain News, treating more particularly of the 
western half of the plains : 

" After the mining interest, which must always take rank as 
the first productive industry in the mountain territories of the 
West, stock-raising will doubtless continue next in importance. 
The peculiarities of climate and soil adapt the grass-covered 
country west of the ninety-eighth degree of longitude es- 
pecially to the growth and highest perfection of horses, cattle, 
and sheep. The earliest civilized explorers found the plains 
densely populated with buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope, their 
numbers exceeding computation. Great nations of Indians 
subsisted almost entirely by the fruits of the chase, but, with 
the rude weapons used, were incapable of diminishing their 
numbers. With the advent of the white man and the intro- 
duction of fire-arms, and to supply the demands of commerce, 
these wild cattle have been slaughtered by the million, until 
their range, once six hundred miles wide from east to west, and 
extending more than two thousand miles north and south, over 
which they moved in solid columns, darkening the plains, has 
been diminished to an irregular belt, a hundred and fifty miles 



STOCK-RAISING IN THE GREAT WEST. 475 

wide, in which only scattering herds can be found, and they 
seldom numbering ten thousand animals. 

" There is no reason why domestic cattle may not take their 
place. The climate, soil, and vegetation are as well adapted 
to the tame as to the wild. The latter lived and thrived the 
year round all the way up to latitude fifty degrees north. 
Twenty years' experience proves that the former do equally 
well upon the same range, and with the same lack of care. 
Time, the settlement of the country, the growing wants of 
agriculture, the encroachment of tilled fields, will gradually 
narrow the range, as did semi-civilization that of the buffalo — 
first from the Mississippi Valley westward, where that jirocess 
is already seen, and then from the Rocky Mountains toward 
the east; but as yet the range is practically unlimited, and for 
many years to come there will be room to fatten beeves to feed 
the world. 

" This great pasture land covers "Western Texas, Indian 
Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, Eastern New Mex- 
ico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and extends far into 
British America. The southerly and south-easterly portions 
produce the largest growth of grass, but it lacks the nutritious 
qualities of that covering the higher and drier lands further 
north and w^est. Rank-growing and bottom-land grasses con- 
tain mostly water: they remain green until killed by frost, 
when their substance flows back to the root, or is destroyed by 
the action of the elements. The dwarf grass of the higher 
plains makes but a small growth, but makes that very quickly 
in the early spring, and then, as the rains diminish and the 
summer heat increases, it dies and cures into hay where it 
stands; the seed even, in which it is very prolific, remains 



476 BUFFALO LAND. 

upon the stalk, and, though very minute, is exceedingly nu- 
tritious. 

" In so far as the relative advantages of different portions 
of this wide region may be thought by many to preponderate 
over one another, we do not appreciate them at all, but would 
as soon risk a herd in the valley of the Upper Missouri, the 
Yellowstone, or the Saskachewan, as along the Arkansas, the 
Canadian, or Red River. If any difference, the grass is better 
north than south. One year the winter may be more severe in 
the extreme north ; the next it may be equally so in the south ; 
and the third it may be most inclement midway between the two 
extremes ; or, what is more common, the severe storms and 
heavy snows may follow irregular streaks across the country 
at various points. There are local causes and effects to be con- 
sidered, such as permanently affect certain localities favorably 
or the contrary. For instance, nearer the western border of 
the plains there is less high wind, because the lofty mountain 
ranges form a shelter or wind breaker. Of local advantages, 
detached ranges of mountains, hills, or broken land, timber, 
brush, and deep ravines or stream-beds are the most im- 
portant in furnishing shelter, and, as a general thing, better 
and always more varied pasture ground. 

" There is never rain upon the middle and northern plains 
during the winter months. When snow comes it is always 
dry, and never freezes to stock. The reverse is the case in the 
Northern and Middle States, where winter storms often begin 
with rain, which is followed by snow, and conclude with 
piercing wind and exceeding cold. Stock men can readily 
appreciate the effect of such weather upon stock exposed to its 
influence. 

" The soil of the plains is very much the same every- 



STOCK-RAISING IN THE GREAT WEST. 477 

where. To a casual observer it looks sterile and unpromis- 
ing, but, when turned by the plow or spade, is found very 
fertile. Near the mountains it is filled with coarse rock par- 
ticles, and under the action of the elements these become dis- 
proportionately prominent on the surface. Receding from the 
mountains, it becomes gradually finer, until gravel and bits 
of broken stone are no longer seen. Being made up from the 
wash and wearing away of the mountains, alkaline earths enter 
largely into its composition, supplying inexhaustible quanti- 
ties of those properties which the eastern farmer can secure 
only by the application of })laster, lime, and like manures. 
These make the rich, nutritious grasses upon which cattle 
thrive so remarkably, and to the constant wonder of new- 
comers, who can not reconcile the idea of such comparatively 
bare and barren-looking plains with the fat cattle that roam 
over them. 

" Besides the plains, there is a vast extent of pasture- lands 
in the mountains. Wherever there is soil enough to support 
vegetation, grass is found in abundance, to a line far above 
the limit of timber growth, and almost to the crest of the 
snowy range. These high pastures, however, are suitable 
only for summer and autumn range; but in portions of the 
great parks and large valleys, most parts of which lie below 
eight thousand feet altitude above the sea, cattle, horses, and 
sheep live and thrive the year round. The cost of raising a 
steer to the age of five years, when he is at a prime age for 
market, is believed to be about seven dollars and a half, or 
one dollar and a half per year. A number of estimates 
given us by stock men, running through several years, place 
the average at about that figure. That contemplates a herd 
of four hundred or more. Smaller lots of cattle will gener- 



478 BUFFALO LAND. 

ally cost relatively more. The items of expense are herding, 
branding, and salt — nothing for feed." 



THE CATTLE-HIVE OF NORTH AMERICA. 

In this connection we may very properly quote from the 
same writer the following paragraph in regard to the source 
from whence all the cattle are now brought — that great 
natural breeding ground, the prairie land of Texas. 

" Texas is truly the cattle-hive of North America. While 
New York, with her 4,000,000 inhabitants, and her settle- 
ments two and a half centuries old, has 748,000 oxen and 
stock cattle ; while Pennsylvania, with more than 3,000,000 
people, has 721,000 cattle; while Ohio, Avith 3,000,000 peo- 
ple, has 749,000 cattle; while Illinois, with 2,800,000 people, 
has 867,000 cattle; and while Iowa, with 1,200,000 people, 
has 686,000 cattle; Texas, forty years of age, and with her 
500,000 people, had 2,000,000 head of oxen and other cattle, 
exclusive of cows, in 1867, as shown by the returns of the 
county assessors. 

" In 1870, allowing for the difference between the actual 
number of cattle owned and the number returned for taxa- 
tion, there must be fully 3,000,000 head of beeves and stock 
cattle. This is exclusive of cows, which, at the same time, 
are reported at 600,000 head. In 1870 they must number 
800,000 — making a grand total of 3,800,000 head of cattle in 
Texas. One-fourth of these are beeves, one-fourth are cows, 
and the other two-fourths are yearlings and two-year olds. 

There would, therefore, be 950,000 beeves, 950,000 cows, 
and 1,900,000 young cattle. There are annually raised and 



THE CLIMATE OF THE PLAINS. 479 

branded 750,000 calves. These cattle are raised on the great 
plains of Texas, which contain 152,000,000 acres. Tn the 
vast regions watered by the Rio Grande, Nueces, Guadalupe, 
San Antonio, Colorado, Leon, Brazos, Trinity, Sabine, and 
Red Rivers, these millions of cattle graze upon almost tropical 
growths of vegetation. They are owned by the ranchmen, 
who own from 1,000 to 75,000 head each." 

As specimen ranches, may be named the following: Santa 
Catrutos Ranch belongs to Richard King. Amount of land, 
84,132 acres. The stock consists of 65,000 cattle, 10,000 
horses, 7,000 sheep, 8,000 goats. Three hundred Mexicans 
arc employed, and 1,000 saddle horses, on the place. O'Con- 
nor's ranch, near Goliad, is an estate possessing about 50,000 
cattle. The Robideaux ranch, on the Gulf, belonging to 
Mr. Kennedy, contains 142,840 acres of land, and has 30,000 
beef cattle in addition to other stock. 



THE CLIMATE OF THE PLAINS. 

Mr. L. R. Elliott, who has studied this matter carefully, 
says : " The plains have been so often described as a rainless 
region that great misconception in regard to the climate has pre- 
vailed. The absolute precipitation is much greater than has 
been in past years supposed, and is due to other causes. Mete- 
orologists who have described the rain-fall of the plains as 
derived only or principally from the remaining moisture of 
winds from the Pacific, afler the passage of the Nevada and 
Rocky Mountain ranges, have been greatly in error, and the 
better conclusion now is, with all authorities who have given 
any special attention to the subject, that the moisture which 



480 "BUFFALO LAND. 

fertilizes the Mississippi Valley, including the broad, grassy 
plains, is derived from the Gulf of Mexico. 

" At Fort Riley about sixty-nine per cent, of the annual pre- 
cipitation is in spring and summer ; at Fort Kearney, eighty- 
one; and at Fort Laramie, seventy-two per cent. From 
observations at Forts Harker, Hays, and Wallace, on the line 
of this road, the same rule seems to hold good. Records have 
not been long enough continued at these three posts to give a 
long average, but the mean appears to be between seventeen 
and nineteen inches at Hays and Wallace, and possibly rather 
more at Harker. The actual average for 1868 and 1869 at 
Hays is 18.76 inches, and for the first six months of 1870 the 
record is 10.68 inches. At Wallace the record for 1869 was 
over seventeen inches, and in 1870, up to October 1, about the 
same amount had fallen. 

"Without records there can be only conjecture; and I can 
only remark that there does not seem to be much diminution 
in the annual rain-fdll until we get as far west as the one 
hundred and third meridian. Thence to the base of the 
mountains (except perhaps in the timbered portions of the 
great divide south of the line of this railway) the annual 
average may be possibly two or three inches less than in the 
midst of the plains — a peculiarity explained, hypothetically, by 
the fact that the region ' lies to the westward of the general 
course of the moisture currents of air flowing northward from 
the Gulf of Mexico, and is so near the mountains as to lose 
much of the precipitation that localities in the plains east and 
north-east are favored with. The mountains seem to exercise an 
influence — electrical and magnetical — in attracting moisture, 
which is condensed in the cooler regions of their summits, 
while the plains at their feet may be parched and heated to ex- 



THE CLIMATE OF THE PLAINS. 481 

cess.' This explanation may be fanciful, but the fact remains 
that near the mountains the rains seem to decrease north of the 
great divide; fortunately, however, this occurs in a region 
where irrigation may be applied extensively and where there is 
sufficient moisture to nourish bountiful crops of grass. 

" The vegetation of the plains along Avagon tracks and rail- 
road embankments shows a capability of production scarcely 
suggested by the surface where undisturbed : wherever the 
earth is broken up, the wild sunflower {Helianthus), and others 
of the taller-growing plants, though previously unknown in 
the vicinity, at once spring up. 

" I have been on the plains all the time since early in May 
till this date (22d of September). There has been much dry 
weather, but I have not seen one cloudless day — no day on 
which the sun would rise clear and roll along a canopy of 
brass to the west. There has always been humidity enough to 
form clouds at the proper height ; and on many days they 
would be seen defining, by their flat bottoms, the exact line 
where condensation became sufficient to render the vapor visi- 
ble. I conclude, from all this, that abundant moisture has 
floated over the plains to have given us a great deal more rain 
than would be desirable if it had been precipitated. 

" Sometimes a storm would be seen to gather near the 
horizon, and we could see the rain pending from the clouds 
like a fringe, hanging apparently in mid-air, unable to reach 
the expectant earth. The rain stage of condensation had been 
reached above, but the descending shower was re-vaporized ap- 
parently, and thus arrested. 

" These hot winds are not, so far as I have observed, apt to 
be constant in one place for any considerable length of time ; 
they strike your face suddenly, and perhaps in a minute are 

27 



482 BUFFALO LA^^D. 

gone. They seem to run along in streaks or ovenfuUs with the 
M'inds of ordinary (but rather high) temperature. They do not 
begin, I believe, till in July, as a general rule, and are over by 
September 1, or perhaps by August 15. Their origin I take 
to be, of course, in heated regions south or southwest of us ; 
but their peculiar occurrence, so capricious and often so brief, 
I can not explain to myself satisfactorily. 

"I may remark that this season, since about the 15th of 
July, in these distant plains, has given us rain enough to make 
beautifully verdant the spots in the prairie burnt off during 
the " heated " term in July. From Kit Carson eastward, the 
rains have been, I think, exceptionally abundant. All 
through the summer we have had dew occasionally, and it has 
been remarked that buffalo meat has been more difficult of 
preservation than heretofore — facts indicative of humidity in 
the atmosphere, even where but little rain-fall was witnessed. 
Turnips sown in August would have made a crop in this 
viciinity — four hundred and twenty-two miles west of the state 
line of Missouri," 



CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE PLAINS. 

"Facts such as these," continues the same writer, "seem to 
sustain the popular persuasion that a climatic change is taking 
place, promoted by the spread of settlements westwardly, 
breaking up portions of the prairie soil, covering the earth 
with plants that shade the ground more than the short grasses ; 
thus checking or modifying the reflection of heat from the 
earth's surface, etc. The fact is also noted that even where 
the prairie soil is not disturbed, the short buffalo grass disap- 



CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE PLAINS. 483 

pears as the " frontier " extends westward, and its place is taken 
by grasses and other herbage of taller growth. That this 
change of the clothing of the plains, if sufficiently extensive, 
might have a modifying influence on the climate, I do not 
doubt ; but whether the change has been already spread over a 
large enough area, and whether our apparently or really wetter 
seasons may not be part of a cycle, are unsettled questions. 

"The civil engineers of the railways believe that the rains 
and humidity of the plains have increased during the ex- 
tension of railroads and telegraphs across them. If this is the 
case, it may be that the mysterious electrical influence in which 
they seem to have faith, but do not profess to explain, has exer- 
cised a beneficial influence. What effect, if any, the digging 
and grading, the iron rails, the tension of steam in locomotives, 
the friction of metallic surfaces, the poles and wires, the action 
of batteries, etc., could possibly or probably have on the 
electrical conditions, as connected with the phenomena of pre- 
cipitation, I do not, of course, undertake to say. It may be 
that wet seasons have merely happened to coincide with rail- 
roads and telegraphs. It is to be observed that the poles of the 
telegraph are quite frequently destroyed by lightning; and it 
is probable that the lightning thus strikes in many places 
where before the erection of the telegraph it was not apt to 
strike, and perhaps would not reach the earth at all. 

" It is certain that rains have increased ; this increase has 
coincided with the extension of settlements, railroads, and tele- 
graphs. If influenced by these, the change of climate will go 
on ; if by extra mundane influences, the change may be perma- 
nent, progressive, or retrograde. I think there are good 
grounds to believe it will be progressive. Within the last 
fifteen years, in Western Missouri and Iowa, and in Eastern 



484 BUFFALO LAND. 

Kansas and Nebraska, a very large aggregate surface has been 
broken up, and holds more of the rains than formerly. Dur- 
ing the same period modifying influences have been put in 
motion in Montana, Utah, and Colorado. Very small areas 
of timbered land west of the Missouri have been cleared — not 
equal, perhaps, to the area of forest, orchard, and vineyards 
planted. Hence it may be said that all the acts of man in this 
vast region have tended to produce conditions on the earth's 
surface ameliorative of the climate. With extended settlements 
on the Arkansas, Canadian, and Red River of the south, as 
well as on the Arkansas, on the river system of the Kaw Val- 
ley, and on the Platte, the ameliorating conditions will be ex- 
tended in like degree; and it partakes more of sober reason 
than wild fancy to suppose that a permanent and beneficial 
change of climate may be experienced. The appalling deteri- 
oration of large portions of the earth's surface, through the acts 
of man in destroying the forests, justifies the trust that the cul- 
ture of taller herbage and trees in a region heretofore covered 
mainly by short grasses may have a converse effect. Indeed, in 
Central Kansas nature seems to almost precede settlements by 
the taller grasses and herbage." 



THE TREES AND FUTURE FORESTS OF THE PLAINS. 

Mr. Elliott continues his article as follows : " The principal 
native trees on the plains west of ninety-seventh meridian are : 
Cottonwood, walnut, elm, ash, box-elder, hackberry, plum, red 
cedar. To these may be added willow and grape-vines, and 
also the locust and wild cherry mentioned by Abert as occur- 
ring on the Purgatory. The black walnut extends to the one- 



TREES AND FUTURE FORESTS OF THE PLAINS. 485 

hundredth meridian. The elm and ash are of similar, perhaps 
greater range. Hackberry has been observed west of one 
hundred and first meridian. Cottonwood, elder, red cedar, 
plum, and willow are persistent to the base of the mountains. 
The extensive pine forest on the ' great divide ' south of Den- 
ver, although stretching seventy to eighty miles east from the 
mountains, is not taken into view as belonging to the plains 
proper. Its existence, however, suggests the use of its seeds in 
artificial plantations in that region. The fossil wood imbedded 
in the cretaceous strata in many parts of the plains is left out 
of consideration, as belonging to a previous, though recent, geo- 
logical age; but the single specimens of trees found growing at 
wide intervals are silent witnesses to the possibility of extended 
forest growth. 

" Were it possible to break up the surface to a depth of two 
feet, from the ninty-seventh meridian to the mountains, and 
from the thirty-fifth to the forty-fifth parallel, we should have 
in a single season a growth of taller herbage over the entire 
area, less reflection of the sun's heat, more humidity in the 
atmosphere, more constancy in springs, pools, and streams, 
more frequent showers, fewer violent storms, and less caprice 
and fury in the winds. A single year would witness a changed 
vegetation and a new climate. In three years (fires kept out) 
there would be young trees in numerous places, and in twenty 
years there would be fair young forests. The description of 
the ' broad, grassy plains,' given in the foregoing pages, attests 
their capacity to sustain animal life. For cattle, sheep, horses, 
and mules, they are a natural pasture in summer, with (in 
many parts) hay cured standing for winter. The famed Pam- 
pas, with their great extremes of wet and drought, can not 
bear comparison with our western plains. For grazing pur- 



486 BUFFALO LAND. 

poses, the habitable character of our vast traditloDal Mesert ' is 
generally conceded, and hence it need not be enlarged on 
here " 



THE SUPPLY OF FUEL. 

Of the question of fuel for the future dwellers upon the face 
of Buffalo Land, Hayden, in his report, speaks as follows : 

" The question often arises in the minds of visitors to this 
region, how the law of compensation supplies the want of fuel 
in the absence of trees for that use. Many persons have taken 
the position that the Creator never made such a vast country, 
with a soil of such wonderful fertility, and rendered it so suita- 
ble for the abode of man, without storing in the earth beds of 
carbon for his needs. If this idea could be shown to be true 
in any case, we would ask why are the immense beds of coal 
stored away in the mountains of Pennyslvania and Virginia, 
while at the same time the surface is covered with dense forests 
of timber. We now know that this law does not apply to the 
natural world; and, if it did, this western country would be a 
remarkable exception. The State of Nebraska seems to be 
located on the western rim of the great coal basin of the 
"West, and only thin seams of poor coal will probably ever be 
found; but in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, in 
Wyoming, and Colorado, coal in immense quantities has been 
hidden away for ages, and the Union Pacific Railroad has now 
brought it near the door of every man's dwelling. 

" These Rocky Mountain coal-beds will one day supply an 
abundance of fuel for more than one hundred thousand square 



DISTRICTS CONTIGUOUS TO THE PLAINS. 487 

miles along the Missouri River of the most fertile agricultural 
land in the world." 

Of this coal area, Persifor Frazier, Jr., says : " Those beds 
which occur on the east flank of the Eocky Mountains have 
been followed for five hundred miles and more, north and 
south ; and if it be true that these are * fragments of one great 
basin, interrupted here and there by the upheaval of mountain 
chains, or concealed by the deposition of newer formations,' 
then their extension east and west, or from the eastern range 
of the Rocky Mountains or Black Hills to Weber Canyon, 
where an excellent coal is mined, will fall but little short of 
five hundred miles. Throughout this extent these beds of coal 
are found between the upper cretaceous and lower tertiary (or 
in the transition beds of Hayden), wherever these transition 
beds occur, whether on the extreme flanks or in the valleys 
and parks between the numerous mountain ranges. Assuming 
that the eroding agencies together have cut off* one-half of the 
coal from this area, and taking one-half of the remainder as 
their average longitudinal extent, we have over fifty thousand 
square miles of coal lands, accounting the latitudinal extent as 
only five hundred miles ; whereas we have no reason to believe 
that it terminates within these bounds, but, on the contrary, 
good reason for supposing that it extends northward far into 
Canada, and southward with the Cordilleras. All this terri- 
tory has been omitted in the estimate of the extent of our coal 
fields." 

DISTRICTS CONTIGUOUS TO THE PLAINS. 

The reader has now had the salient features of the great 
plains placed before him in succession. The more interesting 



488 BUFFALO LAND. 

districts immecliately adjoining will well repay the reader for a 
brief consideration. 



THE NORTH PLATTE DISTRICT. 

A late writer, who has studied the country of wliich he 
speaks very closely,* thus describes the North Platte District : 

" The distance from the mouth of the North Platte, where 
it joins the South Platte on the Union Pacific Railroad, to its 
sources in the great Sierra Madre, whose lofty sides form the 
North Park, in which this stream takes its rise, is more than 
eight hundred miles. Its extreme southern tributaries head in 
the gorges of the mountains one hundred miles south of the 
railroad, and receive their water from the melting snows of 
these snow-capped ranges. Its extreme western tributaries rise 
in the Wahsatch and Wind River ranges, sharing the honor of 
conveying the crystal snow waters from the continental divide 
with the Columbia and Colorado of the Pacific. Its northern 
tributaries start oceanward from the Big Horn Mountains, 
three hundred miles north of the starting-point of its southern 
sources. 

" It drains a country larger than all New England and New 
York together. East of the Alleghany Mountains there is no 
river comparable to this clear, swift mountain stream in its 
length or in the extent of country it drains. 

"The main valley of the North Platte, two hundred miles 
from its mouth to where it debouches through the Black Hills 
out on to the great plains, is an average of ten miles wide. 
Nearly all this area — two thousand square miles — is covered 

*Dr. H. Latham, under date June 5th, 1870, in the Omaha Daily 
Herald. 



THE NORTH PLATTE DISTRICT. 489 

with a dense growth of grass, yielding thousands of tons of 
hay. The bluffs bordering these intervals are rounded and 
grass-grown, gradually smoothing out into great grassy plains, 
extending north and south as far as the eye can see. 

" Of the country, Alexander Majors says, in a letter to the 
writer of this article : * The favorite wintering ground of my 
herders for the past twenty years has been from the Cache a la 
Poudre on the south to Fort Fetterman on the north, embracino- 
all the country along the eastern base of the Black Hills.' It 
was of this country that Mr. Seth E. Ward spoke, when he 
says : ' I am satisfied that no country in the same latitude, or 
even far south of it, is comparable to it as a grazing and stock- 
raising country. Cattle and stock generally are healthy, and 
require no feeding the year round, the rich ' bunch ' and 
'gramma' grasses of the plains and mountains keeping them, 
ordinarily, fat enough for beef during the entire winter.' 

" All this region east of the Black Hills is at an elevation 
less than five thousand feet. The climate, as reported from 
Fort Laramie for a period of twenty years, is 50° Fahrenheit. 
The mean temperature for the spring months is 47°, for the 
summer months 72°, for autumn 60°, for winter 31°. The 
annual rain-fall is about eighteen inches — distributed as fol- 
lows: Spring, 8.69 inches; summer, 5.70 inches; autumn, 3.69 
inches. The snow fall is eighteen inches. 

"There is in the North Platte Basin, east of the Black Hills 
divide, at least eight million acres of pasturage, with the 
finest and most lasting streams, and good shelter in the bluffs 
and canyons. As I have said before, we can only Judge of the 
extent and resources of such a single region by comparison. 
Ohio has six million sheep, yielding eighteen million pounds of 
wool, bringing herd farmers an aggregate of four and one- 



490 BUFFALO la:n^d. 

half niilHon dollars. This eight million acres of pasture 
would at least feed eight million sheep, yielding twenty-four 
million pounds of wool, and, at the same price as Ohio wool, 
six million dollars. Now, this money, instead of going to 
build up ranches, stock-farms, store-houses, woolen mills, and 
all the components of a great and thrifty settlement, is sent by 
our wool-growers and woollen manufacturers to Buenos Ayres, 
to Africa, and Australia, to enrich other people and other lands, 
while our wool-growing resources remain undeveloped. 

" As you follow the North Platte up through the Black Hill 
Canyon, you come out upon the great Laramie plains, which lie 
between the Black Hills on the east and the snowy range on 
the west. These plains are ninety miles north and south, and 
sixty miles east and west. They are watered by the Big and 
Little Laramie Rivers, Deer Creek, Rock Creek, Medicine 
Bow River, Cooper Creek, and other tributaries of the North 
Platte. It is on the extreme northern portion of these plains, 
in the valley of Deer Creek, that General Reynolds wintered 
daring the winter of 1860, and of which he remarks, on pages 
seventy- four and seventy-five of his ' Explorations of the Yel- 
lowstone," as follows : 

" * Throughout the whole season's march the subsistence of 
our animals had been obtained by grazing after we had reached 
our camp in the afternoon, and for an hour or two between the 
dawn of day and our time of starting. The consequence was 
that when we reached our winter quarters there were but few 
animals in the train that were in a condition to have continued 
the march without a generous grain diet. Poorer and more 
broken-down creatures it would be difficult to find. In the 
spring they were in as fine condition for commencing another 
season's work as could be desired. A greater change in their 



THE NORTH PLATTE DISTRICT. 491 

appearance could not have been produced even if they had been 
grain-fed and stable-housed all winter. Only one was lost, the 
furious storm of December coming on before it had gained suf- 
ficient strength to endure it. The fact that seventy exhausted 
animals, turned out to winter on the plains the first of No- 
vember, came out in the spring in the best condition, and with 
the loss of but one of their number, is the most forcible com- 
mentary I can make on the quality of the grass and the charac- 
ter of the winter.' 

" These plains have been favorite herding grounds of the 
buffalo away back in the pre-historic age of this country. 
Their bones lie bleaching in all directions, and their paths, 
deeply worn, cover the whole plain like a net-work. Their 
' wallows,' where these shaggy lords of animal creation tore 
deep pits into the surface of the ground, are still to be seen. 
Elk, antelope, and deer still feed here, and the mountain sheep 
are found on the mountain sides and in the more secluded val- 
leys of the Sierra Madre range — all proving conclusively that 
this has afforded winter pasturage from time immemorial. 
Since 1849 many herds of work-oxen, belonging to emigrants, 
freighters, and ranchmen, have grazed here each winter. 

" South of the Laramie plains is the North Park, one of 
three great parks of the Rocky Mountains, so fully described 
by Eichardson, Bross, and Bowles. This North Park is 
formed by the great Snowy Range. It is a valley from six to 
eight thousand feet high, ninety miles long, and forty miles 
wide, surrounded by snowy mountains from thirteen to fifteen 
thousand feet high. These mountain tops and sides are com- 
pletely covered with dense growths of forests ; the lower hill- 
sides and this great valley are covered with grasses. The 
forests and mountains afford ample shelter from sweeping 



492 BUFFALO LAND. 

winds. Here, as well as on the Laramie plains, the buifalo 
grazed in great herds; and here the Ute hunters, from some 
hidden canyons, dashed down among them on their trained and 
fleet ponies, shooting their arrows with unerring aim on all 
sides, and having such glorious sport as kings might court and 
envy. The Indians are now gone from this valley, and the 
buffalo nearly so. On the two million acres in this valley not 
twenty head of cattle graze. 

" This great park, splendidly watered by the three forks of 
the Platte, and by a hundred small streams that drain these 
lofty mountains of their snows and rains — rich in all kinds of 
nutritious grasses, plentifully supplied with timber; on the 
tertiary coal fields, with iron, copper, lead, and gold — has not 
one real settler. There are a few miners, but where there 
should be flocks and herds of sheep and cattle without number, 
there is only the wild game — the elk, antelope, and deer." 

THE VALLEYS OF THE WHITE EARTH AND NIOBRARA. 

These streams are branches of the Missouri — the one mainly 
in Dakota Territory, and the other in Nebraska. The fol- 
lowing graphic paragraphs concerning them are from Hayden 
again : 

" I have spent many days exploring this region (the White 
Earth Valley) when the thermometer was 112° in the shade, 
and there was no water suitable for drinking purposes within 
fifteen miles. But it is only to the geologist that this place 
can have any permanent attraction. He can wind his way 
through the wonderful canyons among some of the grandest 
ruins in the world. Indeed, it resembles a gigantic city fallen 



VALLEYS OF WHITE EAETH AND NIOBRARA. 493 

to decay. Domes, towers, minarets and spires may be seen on 
every side, which assume a great variety of shapes when 
viewed in the distance. Not unfrequently the rising or the 
setting sun will light up these grand old ruins with a wild, 
strange beauty, reminding one of a city illuminated in the 
night, when seen from some high point. The harder layers 
project from the sides of the valley or canyon with such regu- 
larity that they appear like seats, one above the other, of some 
vast amphitheater. 

" It is at the foot of these apparent architectural remains 
that the curious fossil treasures are found. In the oldest beds 
we find the teeth and jaws of a Hyopotamus, a river-horse 
much like the hippopotamus, which must have sported in his 
pride in the marshes that bordered this lake. So, too, the 
Titanotherum, a gigantic pachyderm, was associated with a 
species of hornless rhinoceros. These huge rhinoceroid ani- 
mals appear at first to have monopolized this entire region, and 
the plastic, sticky clay of the lowest bed of this basin, in which 
the remains were found, seems to have formed a suitable bot- 
tom of the lake in which these thick-skinned monsters could 
wallow at pleasure." 

Of the fauna of the Niobrara and Loup Fork Valleys, he 
speaks as follows : " In the later fauna were the remains of a 
number of species of extinct camels, one of which was of the 
size of the Arabian camel, a second about two-thirds as large. 
Not less interesting are the remains of a great variety of forms 
of the horse family, one of which was about as large as the 
ordinary domestic animal, and the smallest not more than two 
or two and a half feet in height, with every intermediate grade 
in size." 



494 BUFFALO LAND. 

NEW MEXICO — ITS SOIL, CLIMATE, RESOURCES, ETC. 

Bordering on what might be called the south-western corner 
of the plains, or perhaps more properly forming, over its 
eastern half, part of them, lies New Mexico. I find the fol- 
lowing valuable description of the soil, climate, and pro- 
ductions of this section in the report of Prof. Cyrus Thomas : 

" The best estimate I can make of the arable area of the 
Territory is about as follows : In the Rio Grande district, one 
twentieth, or about two thousand eight hundred square miles ; 
in the strip along the western border, one-fiftieth, or about six 
hundred square miles; in the north-eastern triangle, watered by 
the Canadian Kiver, one-fifteenth, or about one thousand four 
hundred square miles. This calculation excludes the ' Staked 
Plains,' and amounts in the aggregate to four thousand eight 
hundred square miles, or nearly two million nine hundred 
thousand acres. This, I am aware, is larger than any previous 
estimate that I have seen ; but when the country is penetrated 
by one or two railroads, and a more enterprising agricultural 
population is introduced, the fact will soon be developed that 
many portions now considered beyond the reach of irrigation 
will be reclaimed. I do not found this estimate wholly upon 
the observations made in the small portions I have visited, but, 
in addition thereto, I have carefully examined the various re- 
ports made upon special sections, and have obtained all the in- 
formation I could from intelligent persons who have resided in 
the Territory for a number of years. 

" As the Territory includes in its bounds some portions of 
the Rocky Mountain range on which snow remains for a great 
part of the year, and also a semi-tropical region along its 
southern boundary, there is, of necessity, a wide difference in 



NEW MEXICO — ITS SOIL, CLIMATE, ETC. 495 

the extremes of temperature. But, with the exception of the 
cold seasons of the higher lands at the north, it is temperate 
and regular. The summer days in the lower valleys are quite 
warm, but, as the dry atmosphere rapidly absorbs the perspi- 
ration of the body, it prevents the debilitating effect experi- 
enced where the air is heavier and more saturated with 
moisture. The nights are cool and refreshing. The winters, 
except in the mountainous portions at the north, are moderate, 
but the difference between the northern and southern sections 
during this season is greater than during the summer. The 
amount of snow that falls is light, and seldom remains on the 
ground longer than a few hours. The rains principally f^\ll 
during the months of July, August, and September, but the 
annual amount is small, seldom exceeding a few inches. When 
there are heavy snows in the mountains during the winter, 
there will be good crops the following summer, the supply of 
water being more abundant, and the quantity of sediment 
carried down greater, than when the snows are light. Good 
crops appear to come in cycles — three or four following in suc- 
cession ; then one or tW'O inferior ones. 

" During the autumn months the wind is disagreeable in 
some places, especially near the openings between high ridges, 
and at the termini of or passes through mountain ranges. 
There is, perhaps, no healthier section of country to be found 
in the United States than that embraced in the boundaries of 
Colorado and New Mexico; in fact, I think I am justified in 
saying that this area includes the healthiest portion of the 
Union. Perhaps it is not improper for me to say that I have 
no personal ends to serve in making this statement, not having 
one dollar invested in either of these Territories in any way 
whatever; I make it simply because I believe it to be true. 



496 BUFFALO LAND. 

Nor would I wish to be understood as contrasting witb other 
sections of the Rocky Mountain region, only so far as these 
Territories have the advantage in temperature. It is possible 
Arizona should be included, but, as I have not visited it, I can 
not speak of it. 

"There is no better place of resort for those suffering with 
pulmonary complaints than here. It is time for the health- 
seekers of our country to learn and appreciate the fact that 
within our own bounds are to be found all the elements of 
health that can possibly be obtained by a tour to the eastern 
continent, or any other part of the world; and that, in ad- 
dition to the invigorating air, is scenery as wild, grand, and 
varied as any found amid the Alpine heights of Switzerland. 
And here, too, from Middle Park to Los Vegas, is a suc- 
cession of mineral and hot springs of almost every character. 

" The productions of New Mexico, as might be inferred from 
the variety of its climate, are varied, but the staples will evi- 
dently be cattle, sheep, wool, and wine, for which it seems to 
be peculiarly adapted. The table-lands and mountain valleys 
are covered throughout with the nutritious gramma >ind other 
grasses, which, on account of the dryness of the soil, cure upon 
the ground, and afford an inexhaustible supply of food for 
flocks and herds both summer and winter. The ease and com- 
paratively small cost with which they can be kept, the rapidity 
with which they increase, and exemption from epidemic dis- 
eases, added to the fact that winter- feeding is not required, 
must make the raising of stock and wool-growing a prominent 
business of the country — the only serious drawback at present 
being the fear of the hostile Indian tribes. But, as these re- 
marks apply equally well to all these districts, I will speak 



NEW MEXICO — ITS SOIL, CLIMATE, ETC. 497 

further in regard to this matter when I take up the subject of 
grazing in this division. 

" The cattle and sheep of this Territory are small, because 
no care seems to be taken to improve the breed. San Miguel 
County appears to be the great pasturing ground for sheep, 
large numbers being driven here from other counties to graze. 
Don Romaldo Baca estimates that between five hundred 
thousand and eight hundred thousand are annually pastured 
here — about two-thirds of which are driven in from other 
sections. His own flocks number between thirty thousand 
and forty thousand head ; those of his nephew twenty-five 
thousand to thirty thousand ; Mr. Mariano Trissarry, of Ber- 
nalillo County, owns about fifty-five thousand ; and Mr. Gal- 
legos, of Santa Fe, nearly seventy thousand head. 

" Don Romaldo Baca stated to me that his flocks yielded 
him an annual average of about one and a half pounds of 
washed wool to the sheep ; that the average price of sheep was 
not more than two dollars per head ; that the wool paid all ex- 
penses, and left the increase, which is from fifty to seventy-five 
per cent, per annum, as his profit. From these figures some 
estimate may be formed of what improved sheep would yield. 

" Wheat and oats grow throughout the Territory, but the 
former does not yield as heavily in the southern as in the 
northern part. If any method of watering the higher plateau 
is ever discovered, I think that it will produce heavier crops of 
wheat than the Valley of the Rio Grande. 

"Corn is raised from the Yermijo, on the east of the 
mountains, around to the Culebra, on the inside ; in fact, it is 
the principal crop of San Miguel County, but the quality and 
yield is inferior to that which can be produced in the Rio 
Grande Valley and along the Rio Bonito. The southern 

28 



498 BUFFALO LAND. 

portion of the Rio Pecos Valley and the Canadian bottoms are 
probably the best portions of the Territory for this cereal. 

"Apples will grow from the Taos Valley south, but peaches 
can not be raised to any advantage north of Bernalillo, in the 
central section ; but it is likely they would do well along some 
of the tributaries and main valley of the Canadian River. 
They also appear to grow well and produce fruit without irri- 
gation in the Zuni country ; and the valley of 'the Mimbres is 
also adapted to their culture. Apricots and plums grow Avher- 
ever apples or peaches can be raised. I neglected to obtain any 
information in regard to pears, but, judging from the similarity 
of soil and climate here to that of Utah and California, w4iere 
this fruit grows to perfection, I suppose that in the central and 
southern portions it would do well. 

" The grape will probably be the chief, or at least the most 
profitable, product of the soil. The soil and climate appear to 
be peculiarly adapted for its growth, and the probability is that, 
as a grape-growing and wine-producing section, it will be second 
only to California. From Col. McClure I learned that the 
amount of wine made in 1867 was about forty thousand gallons, 
and that the crop of 1869 would probably reach one hundred 
thousand gallons. I have not been informed since whether his 
estimate was verified or not. A good many vineyards were 
planted in 1869 — at least double the number of 1868. Several 
Americans, anticipating the building of a railroad through that 
section, have engaged in this branch of agriculture. The wine 
that is made here is said to be of an excellent quality. 

" Beets here, as in Colorado, grow to an enormous size, and 
it is quite likely that the sugar beet would not only yield heavy 
crops, but also contain a large per cent, of saccharine matter. 
I am rather inclined to believe that soil which is impregnated 



NEW MEXICO— ITS SOIL, CLIMATE, ETC. 499 

with alkaline matter will favor the production of the saccharine 
principle. I base this opinion wholly on observations made in 
Utah in regard to its eifect on fruit; therefore experiments may 
prove that I am wholly mistaken. It is possible the experi- 
ment has been tried ; if so, I am not aware of it. 

"The Irish potatoes are inferior to those raised further 
north. Cabbages grow large and fine. Onions from the Raton 
Mountains south have the finest flavor of any I ever tasted, 
and therefore I am not surprised that Lieut. Emory found the 
dishes at Bernalillo 'all dressed Avith the everlasting onion.' 
But, as to the ' Chili,' or pepper, which is so extensively raised 
and used in New Mexico, I beg to be excused, unless I can 
have my throat lined with something less sensitive than 
nature's coating. Sweet potatoes have been successfully tried 
in the vicinity of Fort Sumner and along the head- waters of the 
Rio Bonito. Melons, pumpkins, frijoles, etc., are raised in pro- 
fusion in the lower valleys ; and I understand cotton was 
formerly grown in limited quantities. 

" As a general thing, the mountains afford an abundance of 
pine for the supply of lumber and fuel to those sufficiently near 
to them. Some of the valleys have a limited amount of cotton- 
wood growing along them. In addition to pine, spruce and 
Cottonwood, the stunted cedar and mesquit, which is found over 
a large area, may be used for fuel. The best timbered portion 
of the Rio Grande Valley is between Socorro and Doila Aiia. 
The east side of the Guadalupe range has an abundant supply 
of pine of large size. Around the head-waters of the Pecos is 
some excellent timber. \Yalnut and oak are found in a few 
spots south, but in limited quantities, and of too small a size to 
be of much value.'* 



500 BUFFALO LAND. 



THE DISAPPEARING BISON. 

In connection with this general review of Buffalo Land, it 
is interesting to note that while civilization, advancing from 
the east, pushes our bison west, another tide of human beings, 
creeping out from the mountains eastward, presses the buffalo 
back before it. The brute multitude is thus between two 
advancing lines, which will soon crush it. In confirmation of 
this, I find the following in Hayden's notes of the country 
along the base of the Laramie Mountains : 

" These broad, grassy plains are not yet entirely destitute 
of their former inhabitants ; flocks of antelope still feed on the 
rich, nutritious grasses; but the buffalo, which once roamed 
here by thousands, have disappeared forever. No trace of 
them is now left but the old trails, which pass across the 
country in every direction, and the bleached skulls which are 
scattered here and there over the ground. These traces are 
fast passing away. The skulls are decaying rapidly, and this 
once peculiar feature of the landscape in the West will be lost. 
Two years ago I collected a large quantity of these bleached 
skulls and distributed them to several of our museums, in 
order to insure their preservation. 

" There is also a singular ethnological fact connected with 
these skulls. We shall observe that the greater part of them 
have the forehead broken in for a space of three or four 
inches in diameter. Whenever an Indian kills a buffalo, he 
fractures the skull with his tomahawk and extracts the brains, 
which he devours in a raw state. 

" Indians or old trappers traveling through the enemy's 
country always fear to build a fire, lest the smoke attract the 



THE FISH WITH LEGS. 501 

notice of the foe. The consequence is that they have con- 
tracted the habit of eating certain parts of an animal in an 
uncooked condition. I have estimated that six men may make 
a full meal from a buffalo without lighting a fire. The ribs on 
one side are taken out with a knife, and the concavity serves 
as a dish. The brains are taken out of the skull, and the 
marrow from the leg-bones, and the two are chopped together 
in the rib-dish. The liver and lungs are eaten with a keen 
relish ; also certain portions of the intestines ; and the blood 
supplies an excellent and nutritious drink. 

" Both Indian and buffalo have probably disappeared for- 
ever from these plains. Elk, black-tailed deer, red deer, 
mountain sheep, wolves, and the smaller animals, are still quite 
abundant, especially in the valleys of the small streams, where 
they flow down through the mountains. Elk Mountain and 
Sheephead Mountain have always been noted localities for 
these animals." 

THE FISH WITH LEGS. 

But while the buffalo has become extinct in that locality, an 
inhabitant of the water may be preparing (query : in support 
of the theory of development?) to take its place. I quote 
again from Hayden : 

" There are other attractions here, of which the traveler will 
be informed long before he reaches the locality. The ' fish 
with legs ' are the only inhabitants of the lake, and numbers of 
persons make it a business to catch and sell them to travelers. 
During the summer season they congregate in great numbers 
in the shallow water among the weeds and grass near the 
shore, and can be easily caught; but in cold weather they 



502 BUFFALO LAND. 

retire to the deeper portions of the lake, and are not seen 
again until spring. These little animals are possessed of gills, 
and, were it not for the legs, would most nearly resemble a 
miniature cat-fish. But when warm weather comes, a form 
closely resembling them, but entirely destitute of gills, may be 
seen in the water swimming, or creeping clumsily about on 
land. Sometimes they travel long distances, and are found in 
towns, near springs or wet places, usually one at a time, while 
those with gills are never seen except in the alkaline lakes 
which are so common all over the West." 



THE MOUNTAIN SUPPLY OF LUMBER FOE THE PLAINS. 

In connection with this (the western) border of the plains, 
it IS interesting to note what the same writer says of a future 
supply of lumber : 

" Not only in the more lofty ranges, but also in the lower 
mountains, are large forests of pine timber, which will eventu- 
ally become of great value to this country. Vast quantities 
of this pine, in the form of railroad ties, are floated down the 
various streams to the Union Pacific Railroad. One gentle- 
man alone contracted for five hundred and fifty thousand ties, 
all of which he floated down the stream from the mountains 
along the southern side of the Laramie Plains. The Big and 
Little Laramie, Rock Creek, and Medicine Bow River, with 
their branches, were here literally filled with ties at one time ; 
and I was informed that, in the season of high water, they can 
be taken to the railroad from the mountains, after being cut 
and placed in the water, at the rate of from one to three cents 
each. These are important facts, inasmuch as they show the 



LUMBER FOR THE PLAINS. 503 

case with which these vast bodies of timber may be brought to 
the plains below and converted into lumber, should future 
settlement of the country demand it." 

"On the summits of these lofty mountains are some most 
beautiful, open spots, without a tree, and covered with grass 
and flowers. After passing through dense pine forests for 
nearly ten miles, we suddenly emerged into one of these park- 
like areas. Just in the edge of the forest which skirted it 
were banks of snow six feet deep, compact like a glacier, and 
within a few feet were multitudes of flowers — and even the 
common strawberry seemed to flourish. These mountains are 
full of little streams of the purest water, and for six months 
of the year good pasturage for stock could be found." 



THE END. 



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